


Border Line

by Żeni (JD_Centric)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Character Death, Children, Demons, Drug Use, F/M, Genocide, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, Magic, Mental Health Issues, Monsters, Murder, Pining, Possibly Unrequited Love, Post-Apocalypse, Recreational Drug Use, Supernatural Elements, Violence, demon lore, implied communism, implied nazism, radiation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:34:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 36,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26696080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JD_Centric/pseuds/%C5%BBeni
Summary: A second squad was sent after the first official mission to the centre of Moscow Minor failed with the disappearance of its participants but its return would raise more questions than it would answer.// Inspired by the amazing, thrilling literature of Dmitry Glukhovsky! //
Relationships: America & Russia (Hetalia), Austria/Hungary (Hetalia), Belarus/Lithuania (Hetalia), Bulgaria/Romania (Hetalia), China & Russia (Hetalia), Czech Republic/Slovakia (Hetalia), Denmark/Norway (Hetalia), Finland/Sweden (Hetalia), Germany/North Italy (Hetalia), Hungary/Prussia (Hetalia), Lithuania & Prussia (Hetalia), Lithuania/Poland (Hetalia)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back, guys, this time with an idea that hit me so suddenly that I just can't believe how I managed to put out not one but one and a half chapters (16 pages) in just two days! I decided that it was so worth showing it to you guys, I think I did a really good job! So I was originally planning to work on a few stories so I can publish for the Hetaween event this year...but my inspiration failed me and I was so tired from work, I couldn't put out anything despite the ideas being really good, in my opinion. This fanfiction will be something I will really put my all into, it was just so fun to finally make a play on Glukhovsky's stories, you'll see a lot of Metro 2033 lore in this fic with added twists from me <33 It's going to be a dynamic, sad, scary story full of deadends and turns, I'm so excited for it, I hope you feel it too once you finish this first chapter! c: 
> 
> As always, please leave comments with polite critique, and also this fic will simultaneously be published on the tumblr blog I made specifically for my Hetalia writing, here's the link - https://www.tumblr.com/blog/buziaki-am-telefon, so you can go check that out 'cus I plan on posting previews and snippets from the story as I move on with it and I'll be posting generally interesting stuff that I'm excited for! c: Thank you guys so much for stopping by and now, enjoy the opening! <33

Moscow Minor had little sights worth seeing, the newest of them being the crater which was estimated to cover over two kilometres in length, a bit over three in width. They spent almost the entire morning trying to measure it, driving around the slopes of concrete, the ruins of buildings and the rusted bodies of cars that created steep and dangerous paths down to the bottoms of the crater which, upon further investigation, appeared to be the platforms of the metro stations that had been bared to the thick cover of warm air that clung close to the ground.

They used the Ostankino Tower and the Star to help themselves navigate around Moscow Minor, much like the ancient travellers would use the stars to get around. Small groups of dogs and other mutilated packs of various animals, primitively resembling the ones in the children’s books, would come out of their hiding places to follow the sound of the car. They drove purposefully slowly, so as to navigate better around the rubble. Nothing showed enough interest to attack the vehicle and that was encouraging.

They stopped the car under the shade that the overgrown flora of the Botanical gardens and spread out to scout the area surrounding the metro station’s entrance. Looking down they could see the walls of the tunnel, revealed by the landslide. Standing at the edge of the crater, one could try to look closely into the rubble bellow and only imagine what could be buried under it. There was a certain odd stench that the tunnels emitted that wasn’t quite right, as if the lungs of Moscow Minor were breathing out toxic remains.

The stench was that more unbearable when one stood closer to the edge and sergeant Popescu, who had a generally sensitive nose, made even more sensitive by the near presence of the Star and its effects on the senses, could feel his throat trying to close around the bile nearly crawling out of it. He got a hold of himself for the sake of their unpleasant job and took out the binoculars from his backpack, brought them to his eyes and fixed the setting so he could see clearly every tiny detail of the collapsed tunnel. There was nothing special there at first glance and the sergeant lowered the binoculars to brush away the moisture in his eyes, which were quickly becoming irritated by the too-bright sun, the rays of which broke through the thinning chemical cover that had once protected the earth.

Vladimir raised the binoculars again to his eyes and scanned the tunnel’s walls and the remains of the platform. A gust of wind blew the heavy air into his face and he got a whole whiff of the putrid mixture of rot and chemicals. Vladimir could feel the blood draining from his face and his knees become weak as his eyes landed on something at the bottom of this part of the hole.

The binoculars nearly fell from his shaking hands and he turned in the direction of the car to call for the others. The sight was one so worrisome and horrific that even the power of the Star could barely warm him back up.

“Natalia!” Vladimir called out. “Natalia, come see this, please!”

He turned to face back the waiting hole in the ground with a good amount of unease now that he had seen the bigger picture Moscow Minor was revealing to them. Aleksander was already running his way from the direction of the museum while Natalia too ran to his side minutes later from the remains of the station’s entrance to see what had made Vladimir call for her so urgently.

Buried under Moscow Minor was a mass grave – nobody was spared or shown mercy in the final moments before the wave that took their lives hit, an unstoppable force that couldn’t be described by anybody who hadn’t witnessed it. An entire pile of bones and rotting flesh lay buried partially under the remains of the tunnel's ceiling and the columns, rotting under the sun, exposed in their deaths in a state so shameful and vulnerable it made one wish he had the power to cover up their last resting place and let them rot in peace.

Standing at the edge of the world, the members of the second official mission to the centre of Moscow Minor held their breaths, their eyes drawn to something Seargent Popescu pointed out to them – among the bodies dressed in civilian clothing, they saw the familiar military guard’s attire, the uniform they and the members of the first official mission to Moscow Minor so close to the Kremlin Star, had also worn before they had joined the pile of corpses in the crater.

Ivan dreaded Thursdays. Actually, he dreaded Mondays and the weekends and every other week he disliked Wednesday for the following reason – those were Gilbert’s days off. And when Gilbert had a day off, Ivan was sure that he would be waiting in front of his office, with tea for the two of them even, ready to bother him.

It wasn’t as though Ivan hated the doctor. He hated a certain trait of Gilbert’s and that was his stubbornness. He also knew why Gilbert came to him every day he could be excused from their clinic, the problem was that he couldn’t help the way Gilbert expected him to.

See, that Thursday was just the same as any other. Ivan got up early and Irina was already making breakfast for him and Anton – the child they had taken in their care for as long as it took for his brother to come back from his mission. It was still dark outside, the days began much later it seemed and only when the clouds became thin enough to let the sun through during the day.

After enjoying the modest breakfast of fried bread mimicking pancakes and jam with watered-down tea, Ivan dressed, formally as expected, and left with Irina and the boy though they parted ways just outside the building. While he headed the administration of the Border Post, a settlement just by the outer border of what was known as Moscow Major, his older sister was responsible for the kitchen and as of a few days, took Anton to and picked him up from school.

Just as he climbed the stairs to the second floor of the administration where his office was, Ivan was met with an odd but refreshing surprise – Gilbert wasn’t there. Had the doctor taken a day off today from even that duty of his, to make Ivan miserable? But he hadn’t, despite his foreign roots, the doctor was already dealing with his problems as a Russian – with stubbornness, patience and raising his voice or threatening until he got his way. He still wasn’t close, of course, if Ivan had anything to say about that.

“Sir,” Tolys, a lieutenant and secretary in the building, came to see him around lunchtime. By then Ivan had forgotten that Gilbert was still out and about and that he could still take a detour to his office, so Tolys’ bitter expression confused him. “Beilschmidt’s here, he’s back to see you. He says you’re aware that you have to talk.”

“Don’t let him in!” Ivan ordered, his desperateness surprising the lieutenant. He was only this desperate when Natalia, his younger sister, came asking to see him, but thankfully she was on a mission outside of the Post and was a problem Ivan hadn’t had to worry about in the past few days.

“Sir?”

“Just make an excuse, Tolys, please…”

“He already knows you’re here…”

“Tell him I’m in the middle of an important call, quick! Tell him I’m working on…”

Before he could finish, Tolys was pushed out of the way so Gilbert could finally open fully the door the lieutenant had kept halfway open until then, as if Ivan could hide in his office forever.

“I’m so glad to find you in good health, comrade colonel,” the doctor greeted, polite despite the glares he was the target of and characteristically bold. “I apologize for being late today for our meeting, I had family affairs to tend to.”

“Oh, my,” Ivan sighed, struggling to keep the good tone and hide his annoyance, “were those affairs problematic? Anything we, as your administrators, can help with?”

“My brother has a friend that developed a nasty rash yesterday, we had to go to the clinic for a check-up, to see if he’s alright.”

“That’s unfortunate, I wish little Ludwig nothing but health.”

“Speaking of health,” Gilbert said, “we’re almost out of antibiotics, as well as cleaning materials, gauze, iodine…”

“Tolys, could you please leave us, thank you,” Ivan turned to his secretary, knowing the direction the conversation was about to take. He looked at the doctor, “You come in Gilbert and close the door before anyone hears you. We don’t want to take you to court for spreading administrative information.”

Tolys, despite being usually mellow, sent Gilbert, who he detested greatly for the same reasons Ivan did, a bad look before straightening his uniform and marching down the hall to take care of his own work. The doctor barely even noticed him, his confidence being one other trait that usually, in times such as these, made him stand out in a rather negative way.

“I have already made numerous calls to our central station in Moscow, Gilbert,” Ivan told him, hoping that his tone would finally assure the doctor that all possible measures were being taken. “They already know of our desperate situation and are aware of our shortages. It’s not only your clinic that’s barely making ends meet. But things will not go any faster if you keep coming here every day you can!”

“I’ve heard all of these excused before, colonel,” Gilbert said, as if he knew what he was talking about. “I am and always have been a patient person but it’s been now two months! I trusted you the last time you said this issue would be resolved but Moscow Major continues being as silent as Moscow Minor!”

“Listen, I have no more dignity left to call central every time you come here. They already know what we need and that we need it as soon as possible, the entire Moscow probably knows already that we have a doctor at the border waking generals and majors up in the dead of night to ask for shipments, both the Major and Minor parts! Just go home already, Gilbert, look after your family and let the administration function the way it’s always functioned…”

Gilbert frowned, “I’m already looking after my family but if the administration keeps on procrastinating, I do hope you’ll be able to look after yours.”

“We’re the first defence of Moscow Major’s outer ring. First and only, I would add, as of this year. So don’t you worry, they won’t keep us waiting, for their own sake too.”

“I don’t need to remind you just why we’re the last post outside of Moscow, right? Because the one north of the ring succumbed to cold and disease and we’re not that far from the same, I tell you.”

“That’s for the administration to worry about,” Ivan reminded. “Your righteousness is worthy of applause, doctor, but I really do advise you to keep it to yourself.”

That was a back and forth conversation Ivan hated to waste his time with. But despite his annoyance with Gilbert and his confidence that the system would never turn against them but would actively work with them, he too felt worried. As a leader of the Post, he couldn’t allow the rumoured disease or famine to spread from the last post up north to them, they wouldn’t be able to stand nature’s advances for long if it did. The post north by the river was made primarily of strong men, ex-military staff, and their families but they had a lot less young children, were much fewer and they were farther from the radiation zone, thus there were far fewer cases of diseases other than the virus that wiped them away in a matter of months.

Their Border Post had means of survival, they could grow their own food with rather good quality and they cared for their animals, so at least they wouldn’t go hungry. The lack of medication was more troubling considering the amount of work-related accidents, even the common cold was something that could be deadly if left without proper care and an epidemic similar to the virus in the last post could certainly wipe them out in days.

Ivan understood Gilbert, he wasn’t naïve or stupid, but he had faith in the administration. They just needed to be patient and not a bother, before Moscow Major decided they weren’t worth the trouble after all.

Just when he was about to remind Gilbert that, the door opened again and in stepped Raivis, a teenager and some distant relative of Tolys’, though in the Border Post it turned out quite quickly that everyone was someone else’s relative. As far as Ivan knew, Raivis had to be on patrol duty but the boy was so flushed and shaking that he immediately assumed the worse – that they were being attacked.

But the case was much different, Raivis wasn’t bringing bad news. Or so it seemed.

“A body, sir,” the boy said, his periodic stutter making his words a bit harder to understand. “They found a body floating in the river, it’s in a uniform…It’s in a uniform with the Fourth Empire’s emblem…”

He leaned against the doorframe to catch his breath but Ivan was already standing up from his seat and walking for the door, forgetting all about his conversation with Gilbert once he heard what Raivis had to say. Gilbert followed him too, right after he managed to shake off the sudden wave of horror that overcame him when he heard the emblem of the Empire be mentioned. The last time anyone had seen such a uniform hadn’t been that long ago, however, they had seen _him_ wearing it.

Despite the Border Post being one of the more major settlements with over three hundred people, most of them were women, children and elderly people, neither of which could do more than work in the hospital, school or the farms. Therefore the majority of the administrative and military responsibilities as well as guarding the walls of the Border Post and in rare cases fighting off the attacks from the groups of anarchists, monsters and animals and the armed squads from the Ring in times of war fell on the shoulders of just a small group of armed and trained men and women.

Tolys Laurinaitis had been promoted to lieutenant a year ago, after the battle for the outer ring of Moscow Major, a bow of about five kilometres separating them from the inner parts of the ex-capital. He wouldn’t have chosen a military career, if he could’ve chosen, but the times called for soldiers, not poets or painters, or farmers. Now that their treaty with the Ring had been signed and thus they rarely saw battles as bloody as the one for Moscow Major, with the Fourth Empire also eradicated for good and the danger of attacks from the centre of Moscow Minor – their eastern border, eliminated, Tolys had retired to the calmer and less stressful job of secretary.

Most days he had very little to do. He supervised the work in the farms and made sure to keep records of their provisions to present to colonel Braginsky, he answered the phone, wrote letters and helped the colonel keep track of his routine. Other times he just made him tea and kept him company, something he had to grow used to doing since colonel Braginsky was an intimidating man, it was amusing to see him cower from doctor Beilschmidt or his sister when he could make a man shake with just a look.

When the colonel asked him out of his office after doctor Beilschmidt came for another routine visit of his, Tolys tried to calm himself and not think of the doctor. He knew it was important to be on his good side, he was human too, a day might come when he would need Gilbert's help and then his pride wouldn’t be a good advisor. They did have only one doctor.

The day was rather dark but warm, the snow that had fallen a few days ago to mark the end of autumn had begun to melt already. Winters had become oddly warm as the climate changed year after year, a result of the pollution. Tolys had planned to visit the greenhouses, a row of about five where they grew vegetables, herbs and mushrooms, for the revision he had been putting off for a week now until he decided on a detour. There was still much of the day to go, there was no need to hurry though he usually liked to tend to his immediate duties quickly, always finding more things that needed to be done in the process. Tolys was and had always been a bit of a workaholic.

The thick morning fog had begun to lift from the body of the river that protected them from the east. The wall there was less thick and not as severely guarded, the toxicity of the water made it impossible for anyone to swim through and the fog that hung low above its basin made it hard to cross the bridge to the other side. They had only one guard post there, just by the bridge, and though many considered it a reward to be stationed there, it was still one responsible duty to have.

That’s why when Tolys made it to the bridge he was disappointed and annoyed to see the guard dozing off with legs propped up on one chair and body slouched back into the lounge chair they had put there in the guard’s nest for the quieter nights when they could allow themselves an hour to let their eyes rest. As always, however, Feliks was exploiting the privilege, sleeping in the middle of the day with his hands behind his head and hat brought low over his eyes to shield them from the daylight. His weapon was propped just by his feet where anyone could grab if they climbed up the wooden construction and reached into the guard’s platform.

This was the fifth time Tolys was catching his friend slacking off and it wouldn’t be long before someone else did and told the colonel, that’s what he was afraid of and what he constantly warned Feliks about. The man was as stubborn as doctor Beilschmidt though and thus talking to him was like talking to a brick wall. Threatening to tell the administration of his routine negligence was also pointless as Feliks held all forms of authority to absolutely no regard.

“Feliks!” Tolys yelled, kicking the wooden base of the tower to give his friend a scare. Feliks did startle out of his mid-day nap, jumping to his feet and reaching for the weapon until he saw Tolys. His hat now hung sideways over his head. “What are you doing?! You’re slacking off again!”

“Chillax, brother,” Feliks had the audacity to tell him, staring at him from above. “God, did you scare me! Are you neurotic or what…?”

“I’ll give you neurotic! What if somebody else had seen you? You’re lucky Ivan’s at his office most days now, what if he came for inspection instead of me?!”

Feliks ignored him, something Tolys should’ve been used to by now but always seemed to irritate him whenever it happened. Not only because he had authority over Feliks in their military and administration but because he was his friend and Tolys always spoke to him for his own good, out of worry. Feliks’ confidence that he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it without consequences, just because it was the end of the world, would definitely come to bite him one day and Tolys was scared that he wouldn’t know how to deal with it then.

“There’s nothing going on,” Feliks said, mockingly reporting to him after he picked up a pair of binoculars to inspect the far right and left sides of the riverbed. It was impossible to see far into the fog, so the other shore and what could be happening there remained a mystery most of the time. “But as if you don’t know that. I worry about you Tolys, you’re becoming just like your boss, a maniac. We’ll be needing psychiatric help here if you keep this up, I’m scared for you.”

“Get down here, you’re the one being delusional,” Tolys ordered and this time Feliks took his weapon, moved it to his back and climbed the ladder down so the two could stand together. As a peace offering, Tolys even treated Feliks to one of his cigarettes, folded personally from a piece of old newspaper. He saw Feliks inspect and sniff it before biting the end of it and searching in his pockets for a lighter – he had grown a bit used to better quality paper from their last trip to China town where they not only tried to manufacture the paper but also the tobacco. Sadly, they were doing a better job with growing odd mushrooms and questionable but unmistakably strong opioids.

“What will you be doing next week?”

“Edward’s signed me up to pick potatoes,” Feliks made a face. “I don’t have enough hours of community service, he said. Bullshit! This is community service isn’t it, like, we won a war for them…they go on and say we don’t have hours of community service…”

“It’s not the same, Feliks. There’s no war anymore, we should do all we can to be useful. Keep in mind, we’re not just working to grow our own food, we also provide for China town. If we stop keeping our part of the bargain, they’ll stop producing for us.”

“Oh, right, we have this agreement with the yellowmen…Don’t you ever wonder, by the way, if they can, like…”

Feliks stopped suddenly before he could finish and when after a few seconds he was still silent, Tolys looked at him. His friend was staring, eyes narrowed, into the fog above the river as if he had just spotted movement there.

“What is it?” He asked. It was rare to see Feliks so tense and quiet.

Instead of answering, Feliks climbed back onto the platform and grabbed the binoculars. He raised them to his face and kept on looking into the river and its slow, oily waters, trying to spot again what had just a moment ago sunken out of view.

“Feliks, what is it?” Tolys asked again, with greater urgency. “What did you see?”

“There’s a body over there,” his friend said, slowly, as if doubting himself and what he was seeing. The fog was rumoured to cause hallucinations after all. “It’s caught in the bushes by the shore…”

“And…?” Tolys asked, cautiously urging Feliks to tell him why a body in the river had caused such confusion and distress. They came floating by from time to time, the bodies, but that wasn’t something new.

“I think I see an armband on it…” Feliks said. “The fog’s in the way but…I think it has the emblem of the Empire on it.”

They waited until Raivis brought back Ivan before evaluating the situation and deciding to gear up and bring the body out of the water. A considerably large group of witnesses had gathered by then, watching the soldiers run about, dressing up in the protective suits and pulling on gasmasks, heavy rubber boots and gloves to protect them from the water and fog.

Only the top half of the body made it to the ground though, when after a pull harder than necessary its legs were dislodged and torn from the bits of rotting skin keeping them stuck to the rest of the body and floated slowly away, down the river. It was nothing but a skeletal remain, skin wilting away due to the effects of the water, ears, eyes and nose eaten by the mutated marine life. It’s uniform, though torn and burnt, had remained surprisingly whole and, as Feliks had managed to see, on one arm the corps did have an armband which, though discoloured, bore the unmistakable symbol of the Fourth Empire – an inverted three-sided swastika inside a circle which was rumoured to represent a celestial body similar to the sun or another star, or even the inner circle of Moscow Minor which the Empire had called its own before it was eradicated.

In the first years after what was known now as the Collapse, when the country had begun to reorganise itself and speak of unity, despite the broken connections with the majority of the cities, three bigger formations began a struggle to see which would stand behind the rebirthed nation. They centred around the ruins of Moscow, where they managed to fix the telephone lines, plumbing and electricity so communication was again somewhat efficient and quick. What was now Moscow Major, a few kilometres-wide bow spread across the outer ring of the capital, quickly formed unions with the towns located in an almost straight radial line between it and Yaroslavl, where their first and farthest outpost had been, and called that union the Red Line, while the rest of the capital’s outer ring took over almost everything south of Moscow Major and called themselves the Ring, a capitalist formation of ex-ministers and European ambassadors, businessmen and mobsters.

In the middle of those two opposing powers emerged the Fourth Empire and because what was known now as Moscow Minor, despite being much larger than Moscow Major, was a highly radioactive zone, its inhabitants lived like mice in the tunnels under the city, coming up only to scavenge or guard their outposts where the radiation was less. For a long time, the Red Line, before their war with the Ring over the outer circle of the capital, was in the middle of a vicious conflict with the Empire over Moscow Minor and in particular the Red Square. Despite it being in the nearly perfect centre of the radiation zone, the Kremlin and its ruby stars, now only one remaining after the Collapse, remained a symbol of the Red Line’s power and potential. Being able to push the Empire out of the ruins that the Red Line saw as rightfully theirs would be a historic victory for the young union but fighting at the cost of radiation poisoning soon became pointless and that war lasted for only five months.

Then for years, the Red Line heard nothing of the Empire until refugees from Moscow Minor began flooding their borders, begging to be let in or let through, for reasons nobody knew, certainly not Ivan’s Border Post where only the rumours of what had happened with the Empire and its people had reached. They had formed a squad, months before, to go and scout the area, an order given by the council in Moscow Major, to see if the radiation was low enough to allow access. The readings were shown to be close to normal and not as dangerous as they had been at first though the city was still far from inhabitable for a long period of time, but out of the blue the squad stopped sending messages and reports – they disappeared completely in no more than a few days and were still expected to come back, as small as that possibility was.

It was for all those reasons that Ivan felt chills as he looked at the skeletal remains of the body, a soldier from the Empire judging by the attire. Rumour had it that the Empire had been struck by disease so horrible it had wiped its people out in a week. Another rumour said that they had been eaten by a species of monster that hadn’t been found yet and thus the web of tunnels underground, once the metro, had become uninhabitable. Others believed that the power of the Star had become so great that it had caused the people of the Empire to start a suicidal mission against themselves and thus kill everyone that hadn’t been so lucky to escape to the outer circle.

Thinking of all those bedtime horror tales made Ivan look over his shoulder and back at the crowd that was slowly being pushed away and made to go back to their work, nobody wanted the children to keep staring at something so horrific. In front of the stubborn gathering was their doctor, Gilbert, who watched tensely, as if waiting to hear an assurance that the body they had taken out of the river didn’t actually belong to a soldier from the Empire. Ivan had never believed that there would come a day when he would need to actually talk privately with Gilbert.

“I wonder how he got there…” Raivis asked, speaking mostly to himself, as he stared at the body, shielding his nose from the stench with one arm. “Isn’t Moscow Minor…a bit far from our river?”

“There are way too many possibilities,” Tolys said, trying to be as logical as possible. “He might’ve been killed and thrown there after he got here or he might have killed himself and fallen in. Just because he’s in a uniform that came from Moscow Minor doesn’t mean he’s actually from the Empire.”

“Wherever he came from, we’ll have to report this to Moscow Major,” Ivan interrupted their speculations, stepping closer to look at the body himself. “It’s not often we get bodies in uniform floating by, maybe they’re looking for this one. We really are a bit far from Moscow Minor so this is unfortunate. Tolys, can I please ask you to arrange a place for the body? Let’s keep it away from the food and water, just in case it's carrying something, and make sure that it stays in shape until we get any orders what to do with it.”

He leaned down and personally untied the armband hanging loose around the bony arm. Perhaps it could be useful, something they could use to identify the body later or to prove to their officials in the outer ring that they really needed immediate orders.

“Lucky for you,” Ivan said, quietly enough so only both of them could hear when he passed by Gilbert on his way back to the administrative building, “I’ll have to call the central, again. I wouldn’t mind if you came too, I think we have something to discuss, Dr Beilschmidt.”

They re-stationed him to the Border Post after a few months of investigating, interrogating and trying to beat the truth out of him, the question being – what happened? The same happened to most men that still wore Empire uniforms and carried its coat of arms. But no matter the means they used, the Red Line came no closer to finding out the truth behind the Empire’s destruction, all its people kept repeating was that the Fourth Empire had just been eradicated, quickly and efficiently, simply gone.

They let them leave the camps slowly and in waves, after thorough questioning and background checks, as possible as those were. Those they had no use of were released to fend for themselves outside of the Red Line’s borders, the ones that wanted to stay they kept as workers. After learning that Gilbert was a doctor, they gave him a trial job at one of their clinics where he dressed wounds, gave children shots and discretely dealt with sexually transmitted infections.

That lasted another few months but while he had been hoping to receive citizenship for Moscow Major, the Red Line’s administrative centre and richest part, they gave him a passport with the Red Line stamp but sent him off to dress wounds and cure hangovers in the Border Post, away from everybody who could question his origin.

Ivan had been informed of that as soon as the decision was made to transfer the doctor. They had been in need of one, or even a nurse could’ve done the job, at that time so he said nothing when he got the news that they would get a qualified medic but one with a questionable background as a military doctor in the Fourth Empire. Still, Ivan had welcomed him warmly, out there in the Border Post they were hospitable people, perhaps because they were so few of them and they had all learned to live close to one another, just so they wouldn’t forget what it was like to have people around, lose the sense of pre-Collapse normality.

With himself, Gilbert had brought a small family, or so they had written in their passports, not having any better excuse to transfer them together. Elizaveta, whose actual name was Erzsebet, a form of the name that was odd to the ear and hard to pronounce, had been with Gilbert since the day they had made it to the border of the Red Line and they had stuck together since. Nobody knew what their relationship had been before coming to the Border Post but they lived together, fought over domestic matters and helped each other so the impression they made was of a couple though they never referred to themselves as one.

Elizaveta now worked in their school as a tutor and was responsible for the younger kids as well as watching out for the two children they had brought with themselves from Moscow Major. They had written them in the registers as Gilbert’s brothers, though Gilbert had mentioned many times how only the older one, Ludwig, was actually related to him and they sure were similar, in character more than in looks. The younger one, Feliciano, was merely a child that had ended up in his care and looked nothing like the Beilschmidt’s or Elizaveta – he was a loud and talkative child, unlike Ludwig, and one that was a little bit shy and fearful, a result perhaps of the horrible things he had seen after the eradication of the Empire.

And though nobody was cautious of the family anymore and even looked up to both Elizaveta and Gilbert for what they did for their community, finding the body today had sparked Ivan’s curiosity again. He had never been overly interested in finding the exact reason for the Empire’s defeat, they lived in a world full of uncertainty, one where cities existed one day and were gone the next without any obvious reason – it was just how life was now. But when he had Gilbert at his disposal, bothering him constantly about the things he wanted, he guessed that there couldn’t be anything wrong in trying to, for once, bother _him_ a little and force out at least a hint about the truth.

Back in the office, they sat as they had just an hour or maybe two before that, looking at the armband that Ivan had laid out on his desk.

“It would help immensely if you have at least an idea,” he said, “about what might be the cause for this person’s death and how he ended up in the river. You see, our river was manmade, it doesn’t come from or even pass through Moscow Minor, so it’s odd how this man made it here. Not to mention that he seems to have spent a lot of time in the water and our river isn’t so long, you see, for him to float about for years. How long has it been since the Empire’s fall, three years, five?”

“The Empire succumbed to a plague,” Gilbert said, a story he had told Ivan many times but one that sounded like another rumour more than anything. “We tried to treat the disease but it spread too quickly and seemed to mutate due to the radiation, though we can’t be sure about that. The ones that were healthy ran while they could, the sick were killed and the ones that showed even minor symptoms were also eliminated. There’s nothing special about the Fourth Empire’s collapse and this corpse being in the river…Like What’s-his-name said, there are countless possibilities.”

“You keep talking of a disease but you mean to tell me that such a plague could’ve been happening just beside the Red Line and yet it never spread to us, not even after the refugee waves? There’s not even a minor chance you could’ve brought it here from the Empire?”

“Miracles happen. Obviously, we didn’t.”

“And I think, Gilbert, you’re lying. If there was ever a chance of a disease in Moscow Minor, you would’ve said something when we sent a squad there.”

“Maybe I knew they wouldn’t be coming back.”

“You wouldn’t have let them go, it’s your obligation as a doctor, no, to save people?”

This time Gilbert was silent, merely staring at the pinkish cloth that had been red once. It was impossible to tell just what he was thinking, it seemed as if he wasn’t even thinking at all, that his mind had just shut itself off as easily as it was to flip a switch.

He shook his head suddenly before looking at Ivan, “Doctors are no heroes or saints, not anymore, not in this world. And I don’t believe that the details matter, what’s true is true and I’ve already told you, there’s nothing special about the Empire’s collapse. It was expected even, not as if you would know.”

Not in the mood to be interrogated needlessly, Gilbert stood up and left, more hurriedly than he ever had Ivan’s office.

Secretly, he too was worried by the sudden appearance of the body, an ex-Empire soldier on top of that. Years had passed since that horrible nightmare, the interrogations, the questioning and the beatings, all in the name of finding out something that was meant to stay hidden, or else it could cost them all more than it already had. And it had always surprised Gilbert how little the Red Line really seemed to know, or how much they pretended not to know, about the things that had been happening right under their noses.

Or perhaps there was the possibility that the Red Line and the Ring worked together? Had they always shared a side and had they staged conflicts and wars? All Gilbert wanted was to forget all about it and never to have to remember. There was another reason they all kept quiet after all and it had little to do with politics.

He looked up when he passed by the school, out of habit, and his eyes found the window of Erzsebet’s classroom immediately. She stood there, watering the plants before it was time to go home and Gilbert realised suddenly that it was quite late now, it was odd that he was even catching her in the school still.

Her eyes found his and for a moment they stood watching each other before Erzsebet – it’s what he was used to calling her, at least when thinking of her – opened the window and asked him to wait for her, she’d be with him in a minute, had something to ask of him.

Gilbert followed her without saying anything and, really, they rarely spoke to each other. Not because they disliked it but because they understood each other well enough without words. Sometimes Gilbert could see Erzsebet and her need to talk, the need to tell him something important, and he could see her struggle with herself but she never did end up telling him what was bothering her. Gilbert too never asked, maybe it was his fault, maybe he hurt Erzsebet more than he thought he was helping her.

She took him to an apartment Gilbert didn’t know, where apparently one of her students lived. The mother opened the door for them and thanked Gilbert for the help he was about to give her – it was then that the doctor understood Erzsebet had brought him there to check on one of her kids, one she had sent home that day when he had told her he was feeling unwell and was somewhat warm to the touch. It was around two o’clock that afternoon that the mother had noticed a rash also spreading over the skin of the boys back, at first glance nothing serious but something that nobody could really be sure of nowadays.

“He has no fever,” Gilbert said after a quick check. “His lungs are clean…Actually there’s nothing more troubling than the rash, is there, buddy?”

The boy nodded in earnest and Gilbert finally managed to take a look at the rash in question – the patch of inflamed and rough to the touch skin, according to the mother, had become bigger in the past hours, and Gilbert could really only guess what the cause could be without the possibility of running any kind of tests. The post-apocalyptic medicine was really one big guessing game that would’ve horrified his professors in med-school.

“I’ll give you something to treat the rash with and if it keeps getting worse or starts itching, bring him right to the clinic,” Gilbert told the worried mother, calming her considerably. He himself was a lot more worried, of all the things he could give her to treat the boy with, all he really had left were lotions and pastes. Gilbert didn’t even want to think what he would do if the child’s condition really did worsen…

“You were late today,” Erzsebet said while they walked home. “Did your visit to Ivan not go as planned?”

Gilbert wondered how much he should tell her or if he should even mention the body they had pulled out of the river, mention that it wore their coat of arms. The town was small, rumours spread quicker than forest fire and children were especially good at overhearing things and then bragging with their knowledge to Erzsebet. It didn’t matter if Gilbert told her or not, she would end up learning eventually.

“They found a body in the river today. It had a uniform on, from the Empire.”

Erzsebet’s eyes grew wide with surprise then and she looked at Gilbert with disbelief, as if he was just joking.

“Will they report it to Moscow Major?” she asked. “What did Ivan say? Did he talk to you?”

“Don’t panic,” Gilbert scolded her. “He can’t say anything, not as long as we keep telling him the truth. We both know about the disease, we were there and saw it with our own eyes. They can speculate all they want about it. Don’t worry about the body, there are just as many dead soldiers with crosses on their arms after all. There’s nothing surprising that one just got here, it was about time.”

Erzsebet seemed as if she had something to say but held her mouth shut, for now, knowing that Gilbert was right. She hated to admit it but he was no idiot, he knew what he was saying and he never lied, not to her.

“Okay then. We tell the truth. Should we talk to Luddy and Feli?”

“They barely remember anything, there’s nothing useful they can tell anyone if they ask. I would just like it if…we’re on the same page. It’s probably nothing, but it won’t be good if the Red Line starts digging again.”

“Oh, yes…”

They said nothing more after that and kept walking home in comfortable and familiar silence. Each of them was thinking of one thing, secretly from the other – both of them were thinking of before.


	2. 2

They informed the central administrative department in Moscow Major of the incident the same day and were instructed to wait for another call. They were asked if, by any chance, they had gotten any news yet from the group they had sent to Moscow Minor – apparently, their base at the border had heard of them last two whole days ago and everyone was growing worried.

Ivan had to deny, he hadn’t heard anything either. He hung up with a heavy heart, asking for them to send any new information as soon as it came. Remembering what Gilbert had said that day, that there was a reason, a plausible one, that nobody came back from Moscow Minor made the colonel much more worried. He wouldn’t have cared if only Natalia hadn’t gone, if only she had listened to him and Irina and had stayed but she had been so stubborn, insisting to be the one to bring Ivan proof that the Star was still there and that the Empire or the Ring hadn’t taken it.

He went home with an emptiness in his stomach, couldn’t swallow even a single bite and couldn’t look Irina in the eye too, as if she would know immediately what bothered him. She was too distracted with Anton to ask him any questions, thankfully, and all Ivan told her while she was filling his glass with low-quality homemade imitation of vodka was that it had been a horribly hard day.

The next afternoon he called a meeting after another call from the central in Moscow Major – they were instructed to get rid of the body, burn it or throw it back in the river, it didn’t matter. He raised the question, for Gilbert’s sake, about their supplies and was informed, quite rudely, that he had no right to rush such matters, that they were all going hungry and had no medicine but they had to make do with what they had until they managed to safely dodge the incoming crisis. Their doctor would have to wait, like all of them.

Ivan wished Gilbert had been there, to hear those words, though perhaps the man would’ve grabbed the phone from his hand to say a few words of his own.

Aside from Tolys, Raivis and Edward, his closest and most trusted employees, he had called in people with experience and hardened already by numerous battles with the Ring’s forces to help him make the best decision. Gilbert was also there, as one important part of their community, and Ivan believed that he could give a valid opinion, considering what they would be discussing.

“It is unfortunate, the reason we’re here,” the colonel told them, wasting no time beating around the bush, “but our post might soon find itself in a bit of a pinch. I received a call today from Moscow Major. Their own supplies on certain things are running low, so sending any more to us currently is impossible. I’ve read the most recent reports and in terms of food, with the help of our own provisions and our agreement with China town, we won’t have to starve. Medical supplies, however, we will need and soon, at least the basics. The capital won’t help immediately, so we will have to make do with…”

“Can I interrupt you for a moment?” Gilbert said, sensing what Ivan was about to ask of them and knowing that it would be impossible. “There seems to be a bit of a bug going around the children, I’ve heard of three cases so far. It manifests with fever, fatigue, but most troubling is the rash and that can be a symptom of many conditions, some severe ones. I don’t even have to say that I can’t make a proper evaluation and the possibilities are just as many now but if this gets out of hand I won’t even have antibiotics to treat patients with.”

“What do you mean you don’t know what it can be?” Feliks, who sat on the little couch in the office, raised a brow. “Aren’t you a doctor? Just decide what’s most likely and treat it.”

“And will you take responsibility when I start treating children left and right for one thing and it turns out to be something completely different?” Gilbert bit back not even bothering to look at Feliks.

“What if we go to China town,” Tomas, a young man who had served during the battles far south along the outer ring, proposed, sensing the beginning of a scandal. He knew fights could quickly get vicious, especially when it concerned opinions. “You say a lot of things can cause rashes, what if it’s something with the food? I bet we’re already starting to cook their last shipment, who knows what they must’ve used to grow those eggplants and tomatoes, am I right? We can at least go and check if they have the same problem. They might have medicine to give too until we can get another delivery from central.”

“I’ve also heard amazing stuff about the Asian medicine…” Raivis mused absently. “They can cure wounds with lotions that leave no scars later and they can even cure radiation sickness without iodine or other stuff…”

“They do use other stuff, Raivis,” Feliks informed him smugly, “it’s called weed. But don’t go and try it out, it’s for adults only.”

“I would rather neither of you tries it out, please,” Ivan asked, his tone rather pleading. Sometimes he liked to spoil his people, allowing them to bring in things from their neighbours that would definitely make a bad impression of them on the central administrators if they came for a surprise inspection. He hated the thought of searching his men whenever they returned from China town just in case they brought back something a little more than vegetables too though…

“So,” he said, going back to the point, “China town, you say? Okay then, I can agree. We haven’t been there on a visit in nearly a month. It wouldn’t hurt to see if they need any help.”

“Wouldn’t it be problematic, though?” asked Tolys. “We already take half of their produce as taxes. If we start robbing them of their medicine, wouldn’t they rebel?”

“We pay them back in meat,” Hedvika, who sat beside Feliks, reminded them all. She too had served with Tomas in the far edges of the Red Line, it was somewhere there actually that they had gotten engaged in a hurry, fearing that they wouldn’t get a chance to. Their relationship had started failing though soon after their return from the front, so they were now considering divorce rather than official marriage. “We have no reason to be scared that they won’t help us or would be reluctant. Didn’t we help them fight off those anarchists last year, too? We’ve paid them in bullets, food and medicine for years in advance.”

“Is something worrying you, Tolys?” Ivan asked. When push came to shove, he valued Tolys’ opinion most.

Being addressed so directly seemed to startle the lieutenant and he quickly shook his head, feeling a bit flustered.

“No, not at all. The final decision is yours, colonel. The road to China town is a safe one, though traveling is still risky, I’m not sure if we should do it if it’s not strictly necessary. But it’s not a horrible idea, we’ll have to go there soon anyway…”

“Then it’s settled,” Ivan decided. “You’ll be the one going with me then.”

“ _Me_ , sir?” the lieutenant gasped, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, I do have to make the revision on our food stock and then start cleaning the weapons, it's that time of the month, and…”

“Edward will do that!” Ivan assured him with a wave of the hand, smiling pleasantly. “Anyone can count vegetables!”

The problem wasn’t quite the vegetables, it was that Tolys didn’t count himself lucky at all to spend more time with their colonel than necessary. Even when the man was nice he was intimidating, there was something about him that even when he was smiling or laughing it filled the people around him with dread and made them succumb to any wish or command of his. Tolys certainly wouldn’t want to serve under Ivan's command in the middle of a war, though Ivan was rumoured to be a responsible leader but one that did the necessary to prevail, even if it meant shooting renegades on the spot, before they’d even think of running and leaving their pride behind.

“Next up, doctor,” Ivan turned to Gilbert next, “maybe you wouldn’t mind coming with too. You’re our only medic, we’ll need your opinion on what to take and how much if they have enough to help us with in China town. You’ve been there once before, yes? You know the trip is safe.”

Gilbert frowned. Like Tolys, he wasn’t overjoyed to be the one chosen to make the trip but not because of Ivan – he knew that there was no point of him going too, it was just a way for Ivan to remind him that if he wanted something, he’d have to now help get it. Gilbert was no coward, a little trip outside of the Border Post didn’t bother him at all, and he made sure to let Ivan know by his posture and expression that he would have no objections.

Early the next morning Gilbert got up, dressed and in the kitchen was greeted by Erzsebet. He had told her all about the meeting with the general staff and she had taken the news rather well, though she did tell him she was worried. Gilbert changed the subject then by telling her that all there was to worry about in China town were the STDs, especially in the parts where prostitution was the only way to make money. They spent the rest of the evening telling the kids stories, most of which funny, about their neighbouring settlement and some of Gilbert’s patients that had come back from there embarrassed or annoyed with the souvenirs they had brought back.

Erzsebet made him tea and while he ate his breakfast packed his bag. Gilbert had checked his weapon yesterday, had used the occasion to teach Ludwig and Feliciano to disassemble and assemble it too, in case they needed to, and the gun now hung in the holster under his arm. He got up to leave when he heard the engine of the car coming nearer to their building down the street outside.

“Is there any way you can call me from there?” Erzsebet asked, watching him pull on his shoes in the hall. She always tried to hide her worry for Gilbert and never could manage to do it.

“I’ll try, if not, don’t worry.”

“And be careful who you hang out with there. I don’t want you catching something…”

“Nonsense! As if there’re no women here, please…”

He was already walking down the stairs when the kids caught up with him. Despite the early hour both Ludwig and Feli were dressed and wide awake, as if they had been up for the past hour already.

“Can we come with?” Ludwig asked, much to Erzsebet’s dismay. She was already rushing down the stairs after them, even more angry after they had ignored her yelling at them to go back inside.

“Please,” Feliciano added sweetly, taught that he could get far with the magic words. Gilbert was having none of it though.

“Go back upstairs,” he ordered them, stopping only for a moment before moving on. He was already walking out of the building and onto the street where the heavy military green truck was waiting for him, with the colonel sitting with one leg out of it and the lieutenant standing outside to smoke.

“What’s this?” Ivan laughed, seeing Gilbert walk out with his whole entourage trailing behind. “We have reinforcements, don’t we? Good morning!”

“Good morning!” the two children answered quickly and Erzsebet greeted Ivan too, much less enthusiastically.

“Back upstairs with you!” she ordered the boys, pulling both of them to her side by the hands. “You have to be in school in an hour, go get ready, quickly, before you get in trouble.”

“But you said the trip was safe,” Ludwig said, looking up at Gilbert. “Can’t we come…just to see?”

“No,” Gilbert snapped, not in the mood. “And don’t fill Feliciano’s head with nonsense, trips like these aren’t for kids.”

“Oh, do they want to come though?” Ivan interrupted their family conversation. “They can if they want to, it really is a safe trip. We probably won’t even have to stay the night there, they’ll just stay in the car. It’s good to start the eager boys young, they’ll be patrolling already in a year or two.”

“We don’t really want them to…be soldiers,” Erzsebet said carefully, looking at Gilbert, hoping he would stand up to the colonel and send the kids back home. “They have school today, they can’t skip…”

“They’re both smart,” Ivan disagreed, “they’ll manage with missing a day! Bring them along, Gilbert, it’ll make the trip more fun!”

Ludwig was a little less eager now that Gilbert had scolded him and didn’t dare look at his brother to silently beg him to take them along. On one side there was Erzsebet who’d kill Gilbert if he agreed to take the kids, on the other, there was Ivan who wouldn’t mind having a few more eager hands to help out around the post.

Understanding the importance of it too, despite his reluctance, Gilbert finally agreed and told the boys to get in the car before he had second thoughts.

“Good morning, lieutenant,” Ludwig greeted Tolys before jumping in the back, followed by Feliciano who even stopped to salute.

“Good morning, lieutenant!” the little boy greeted. The two of them were so eager and energetic so early in the morning that Tolys nearly dropped his cigarette – he actually threw it away quickly so he wouldn’t give them a bad example.

“You know we’ll be back by tonight,” Gilbert tried to comfort Erzsebet, feeling the way she glared at him for having allowed this. “I’ll watch out for them, don’t worry. Recruitments started at their age back in the Empire.”

Erzsebet’s eyes only narrowed further, her frown deepened, “How could you say that…”

Knowing he had overstepped a boundary, Gilbert opened his mouth to apologize but Erzsebet was already marching back inside. He made a mental note to bring her something nice from China town…

Tomas, who was on patrol that morning, opened the gate for them and wished them luck, sending them off with smiles and waves. He even mentioned, when he saw the kids, that they made their own candy and sweets in China town so that was something for them to look forward to. Knowing that the candies they made there were meant more for grownups though, Gilbert and Tolys quickly warned the kids that they shouldn’t take anything anyone in China town offered them. That disappointed even Ivan – he had rather naïve visions of their Asian neighbours so he too had gotten a bit excited by the thought of actual candy.

Suddenly neither knew who had it worse – Tolys who had to babysit a grown child or Gilbert who now had two almost teenagers on his hands.

That though was decided as soon as they left the Border Post and Feliciano opened his mouth to excitedly ask:

“Are there actual Chinese people in China town?!”

They were there early in the afternoon. Even outside of town they could hear the commotion coming through the wall that the people of their Border Post had helped the Asians built in the days following the Collapse. The construction was a solid one despite the materials being nothing more than bags of sand, tires and sheets of tin and other metals scavenged from the factories.

Tolys stopped the truck in front of the gate and Ivan stepped out to look around for the guards. Having heard the roaring engine nearing, the two boys patrolling that day peaked out from the top of the wall to see who had come. Luckily Ivan knew both of them and both of them knew the colonel.

“Ni hao!” Ivan waved and though they were a bit surprised by their early appearance, the two boys answered just as enthusiastically, “Privet, colonel!”

“I’ll go get brother for you!” One of the twins, the more energetic and boisterous of the two, informed Ivan in heavily accented Russian before hopping down from the platform and out of view. The other boy, the more timid of the two and the one that actually looked up to Ivan as a colonel in the united army of the Red Line, too got down from the platform to open the gate for them.

China town though smaller than their Border Post had a bigger number of people. Unlike the rest of the Red Line’s outposts, however, they were all primarily farmers that worked to support themselves and by default the Border Post that armed them and had protected them in times of need. Mostly though they relied on the mercy of their God, whose shrine marked the centre of the town, and the power they too harvested from the force of the distant Star in Moscow Minor to fuel their spells and talismans.

Ludwig and Feliciano were the most fascinated by the town, never having been to a place so different and exotic. They both stayed close to Gilbert when they got out of the car, fighting the urge to run off and explore. Their curious eyes were drawn to the wide main street, the buildings much shorter than the ones they had back home, decorated with talismans, paper lanterns and charms, signs written in such complicated writing both boys couldn’t believe anyone could ever learn to write quickly and beautifully with the large, almost rectangular letters. Everybody seemed to speak a language so rich on forms and dialects, they were like bees buzzing about in a hive.

“We speak Cantonese here, primarily,” the young guard explained when Ivan asked him to, for Ludwig and Feliciano. It was odd and somewhat shameful to think that the boy had learned to speak Russian so cleanly when it was hard for them to even imagine ever learning his language, the one he called Cantonese, just as well. “But not everyone here’s from the same place so there are those who speak different languages and know Cantonese just enough to get by.”

“See, doctor?” Ivan turned to Gilbert, “Look how educational this trip turned out to be, far better than school. And how’s our friend Yao? Not thinking about retiring, I hope.”

“He still threatens to but he only barks.”

“Oh, he can’t live down the role of a bitter old man, can he?” The colonel laughed.

The man called Yao came a few minutes later, led to them by the young soldier with the poor Russian. He appeared to be a relatively young man, unlike the old and wrinkled one both Ludwig and Feliciano had imagined while listening to Ivan talk about him. He seemed neither surprised nor disappointed to see them, rather he had on a rather curious expression – the date they had set for their monthly payment was still a while away, so why were the visitors there?

After the man trailed another teenager, this time a girl with a harsh expression and in a uniform similar to that of the two guards with the signature red star and ribbon on her chest, the symbol of the Red Line and one that mimicked the original Star, protecting them and giving them strength in times of war. While the girl walked boldly beside Yao, just behind his back hid another boy, this one around Ludwig and Feliciano’s age.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit, colonel?” Yao asked after offering a bow, a form of polite greeting in China town, as Ludwig and Feliciano learned.

Ivan, who due to their business relations had learned all there was to learn about their customs, returned the gesture before straightening his back as if he wanted to tower over his neighbour. Yao didn’t seem intimidated at all.

“We’re here to do business, as always,” Ivan said. “There is one urgent matter that we would like to talk to you about, if you would agree to have us. We did come without notice.”

“I like the way you phrase yourself, colonel, you make it seem as though we have a choice,” Yao sighed. “Well, you know the way. Training for today is over,” he told the girl, “go see if they need help at the north line. And I see you’ve brought new guests today! How nice. Kikkun, how about you show them around? Don’t hide, come over here, introduce yourself! They might look weird but they don’t bite. Go show them the kitchen, be a good host…”

“I would like if the boys stood close to me,” Gilbert said, smiling just in case Yao thought of him as impolite. “It’s their first time here, I don’t want them running off and getting in trouble…”

“Nonsense! Where could they go, have you seen how really small our town is, doctor? Also, Kikkun knows his way around.”

“Well I do trust him but still…”

“Oh, I see,” Yao frowned, his tone becoming rather accusing. “You believe the rumours! I’d like you to know that I govern a town that relies on its traditions and people with pride. It insults me to hear all the dirty things your men speak about us whenever they leave! And we’ve always shown such hospitality, Ivan!”

“Oh, no, rumours?” Ivan shook his head, “My men spread no rumours and believe none, I assure you! We’ve always valued your hospitality and your people have always been so kind, that’s all we talk about back at the Post.”

Behind him, Gilbert and Tolys shared a look of disbelief. Hospitality, kindness? Of course, Yao’s people were all hospitable and kind but what he failed to mention was that just on the other side of town the women offered more than that, odd men with creepy smiles walked about and sold special cigarettes and adult candy and the power of the Star was used in such ways it made their faces light up as if they were shy virgins just listening about it. Yao’s disbelief and bitterness over Gilbert’s distrust and his certainty in the pride of all his men and women made both the doctor and Tolys struggle to subdue the horrible and rude urge to burst into laughter.

“Go play then,” Gilbert told his boys, willing away the blush of shame from his face. “Don’t get in trouble and stay near that shrine over there, please. And don’t talk to strangers! Do whatever Kiku tells you. I’m counting on your judgement, Ludwig.”

His brother, suddenly realising the trust he was being given, nodded wordlessly, his little face still childishly round and chubby becoming humorously serious.

Gilbert and Tolys followed behind Ivan and Yao dutifully while the other two talked. The two guards were already heading back to their post and that left the two boys with Kiku who still hadn’t said a thing, hadn’t even looked at them properly. After waiting impatiently for a bit, Feliciano couldn’t contain himself anymore and in his excitement thrust a hand out for the little boy to take, almost smacking him in the nose in the meantime, he was so close suddenly in Kiku’s personal space.

“Hi!” He greeted. “My name is Feliciano, I’m from Italy and live in building Number Fifty-five in the Red Line’s Border Post and I’m thirteen years old, what’s your name?”

He said that all in one breath which startled Kiku even more. The boy took a hesitant step back from the offered hand, considered it as if he wasn’t sure if it was more proper to shake it or to bow. He opted for neither in the end, leaning nervously forward as if to bow but also raising a hand which remained hanging in the air, not brave enough to shake Feliciano’s.

“My name is…I mean they call me…I’m,” Kiku stuttered but Feliciano was patient and when he saw him struggling, he made the sentence for him and waited for Kiku to repeat it.

“It’s okay, it’s scary to speak in another language!” He assured him. “But when you speak it more, you learn quicker. It’s scary for me too to even imagine speaking your Catknees, it sounds so difficult!”

“Feli, Feli,” Ludwig interrupted him, pulling his friend back a bit so Kiku could have his space again. “I think you’re making him more nervous…And I’m pretty sure the language’s name wasn't Catknees, don’t be stupid.”

He looked back at Kiku, who was now staring at Feliciano with curiosity and it was relieving to see he was becoming less shy. It made it far less awkward to be there, as if he was being forced to be with them.

“My name is Ludwig,” he introduced himself and even tried to bow, to show that he was receptive of the other’s culture, though he wasn’t so sure how good of a job he was doing. “Can you please show us around? We’ve never been here, we would be happy to see your town.”

Kiku’s Russian might’ve been a bit bad when he had to speak it but he definitely understood them because he nodded quickly and turned around to point at the direction of the odd shrine.

“Kitchen,” he said. “We have really good food.”

Their stomachs were already growling at the thought of food as they let Kiku lead them and though he began to slowly open up, enough for Ludwig to actually talk to him, he did keep sending Feliciano odd, quizzical looks, especially when he began asking about the candy they made and what it tasted of.

Gilbert had never personally been to a meeting between the Post and China town and he wouldn’t be lying if he said he felt a bit out of place.

Unlike the Border Post, China town seemed to have no administrative council. Yao took the role of governor and only administrator of the town, knew excellent Russian and was dedicated to the policies of the Red Line, therefore his position was secured by the government. On some occasions, he would gather a council of educated elders and trained soldiers if he needed a second opinion but those meetings were few and far in between.

He welcomed them all in a modest office which actually turned out to be the living room of his apartment – Yao had no office, the town didn’t even have an administrative building. Apparently, the Border Post was responsible for heading the town's administration instead, as if the government didn’t trust China town to function as a proper part of the Line on its own.

While Gilbert and Tolys stood dutifully aside, Ivan and Yao sat down cross-legged across from one another on the floor. Yao even made tea beforehand to treat his guests with and was now gently blowing away the steam, giving Ivan an opportunity to start.

“We do have your payment for the month ready,” he said, after he heard him out. “You can pick that up whenever you please. Medicine, however, is hard to come by…Hmm, let’s see, we do have some homemade remedies, they’re all natural, they will certainly do no harm if they so happen not to help you.”

“So you have no such cases here?” Gilbert asked. “Nobody’s noticed anything wrong with the children?”

“Oh, absolutely not. Everyone’s healthy. Though people here all know basic medicine or are taught by their parents and grandparents, so they wouldn’t come to me specifically to ask for medical help.”

“We would be more than glad if you could help us with this little problem,” Ivan smiled, sipping from his teacup the bitter liquid. “Our children are strong and healthy, certainly the Star also protects them from everything bad, but we’re still not immune to illness. Everything would be of help. We are raising the future protectors of both the Post and China town after all.”

Yao frowned but said nothing. Like Tolys and Gilbert, he was used to the colonel’s behaviour and knowing that he wouldn’t be able to get the upper hand in a conversation with him barely bothered. He had no reason to argue either – he believed that China town, as part of the Red Line, was responsible for helping whenever it could to support its integrity. It had been a long time since people had felt as united as they did now as part of the Line and it was peaceful and encouraging to know they had a strong force to rely on.

“We can evaluate the amount of provisions you would need now, if you would like, colonel,” Yao said, straightening his back and setting the cup on the table between the two. “First thing tomorrow morning we can go to our storages so the doctor can pick out all the things he will need.”

“I was just about to suggest that you come with us to the Post,” Ivan offered. “That way you can pick up the provisions you need, as a payback for your support. You see that we came empty-handed and we wouldn’t want to be a burden on you. Apparently, they’re struggling in Moscow Major at the moment, so close to the radiation zone it’s hard to grow anything of quality. We can’t be sure when their next delivery of basic supplies will be.”

“You don’t say. Did we not have trading relations with the Ring? You would think that their merchants would be able to offer us support, considering the peaceful times…”

“It’s best not to rely on the Ring and their merchants,” Ivan advised. “I certainly wouldn’t trust them, no matter the treaties.”

“Speaking of the Ring,” Yao said, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully as if considering the information as he told Ivan, “I’ve been hearing rumours lately that they’re trying to form missions to the Star. Apparently, they’re trying to see if the Fourth Empire has left anything useful for them to use.”

“The Star, you say…” the colonel trailed off. They could almost feel the tension coming from his body suddenly and Gilbert and Tolys looked at each other with concern, wondering what exactly could be running through Ivan’s head.

“I’ve heard from our scouts about movement in the border area,” he said, thoughtfully, “but we’ve never thought that the Ring could go so far. We’ve always had an obligation to the Star, but…” Ivan looked at the two men standing by the wall, “I apologize but could you please leave us alone now? I think you deserve to rest and maybe you should find a way to contact Liza, Gilbert, since we’ll be spending the night here, as it turns out. It’s no good driving in the dark.”

Gilbert still had things he would like to ask but he decided that he would have a chance to the next day. He wasn’t sure he enjoyed the thought of spending a night in China town with the colonel and Tolys, now more so than ever with the kids on his hands. He could already hear, in his imagination, Erzsebet scolding him about how irresponsible he was and had been when he allowed Ludwig and Feliciano to come.

Speaking of them, maybe it was best to find them already. China town might have been small and guarded but that didn’t make it a better place for kids to be running around.

Ivan waited until the door was shut and he couldn’t hear Gilbert or Tolys’ steps anymore before turning to Yao.

“You see,” he said, “it’s not just a rumour, actually, that about the Ring’s suspicious activity near the borders on the outer circle. Apparently, their management has been changing the past few months, they had elections recently and a lot of new staff was introduced to their administration. That I find odd and worrisome since we don’t know what to expect of their new council.”

“They’ve always been rather obsessed with the rivalry between parties,” Yao agreed. “Hasn’t there been a meeting yet? If they have a new council, it’s only proper for them to present their new ideas to us too. Didn’t we learn, after what happened with the Empire…”

“Their elections and political views are none of our business. And it ought to remain that way, at least, but if they’re making advances on the Star, that’s a problem. There are two possibilities, after all, either they want to use the Star for themselves or destroy it for good. Either way, we suffer defeat.”

“They can’t use the Star!” Yao exclaimed, “It’s impossible for them to, only the Red Line has managed to do it since the Collapse.”

“You see, there’s a bit of history behind that too,” Ivan told him, rather cockily. “We’ve used the power of the Star since the Kremlin was built. It has been feeding on our blood and lives, has granted the wishes of those brave enough to use it through decades of revolutions and turmoil. How else would a single man become a god to a country as big as ours? The Star will never be of help to any of those capitalists, not because they don’t know how to use it, but because it recognises the blood and ancestry of the men that summoned its power in the first place. It wasn’t that long ago that we taught our children hymns and made them march on the Red Square to praise our power and they wore stars just like yours and mine and the ones our soldiers go to war with against the Ring. We feed it, with our blood and theirs. The red Star can only ever be of service to our kind, to the true and pure Rus blood and nature. Doesn’t that sound patriotic now?”

“It sounded like a good history lesson but disapproves of the idea of unity, considering the amount of Rus blood currently flowing through the Red Line,” Yao mocked. “And considering we here are one of the few that use the full potential of the Star, it seems your patriotic speeches aren’t so meaningful after all.”

“I didn’t mean to insult you, Yao!” Ivan laughed. “Of course you too can use the power of the Star, you’ve given so much to the Red Line! But, back to the question, if the Ring truly has its eyes set on the Star, that can mean another war.”

“Unfortunately,” Yao nodded in agreement. “We’ll see. Hopefully, their new government will have nothing but peaceful intentions towards us.”

“As if the Ring can ever have peaceful intentions towards anyone. For now, let’s not spread conspiracies. It wasn’t that long since the last war. Our men are tired.”

Though humanity had always seemed to progress quicker through actions of violence, learning best through its mistakes, it had become dangerous to toy with that idea. Resources were much harder to acquire now and wasting them meaninglessly was considered a capital offence. That’s why both sides had to be much more careful when planning their political and military strategies.

And, as it turned out, nobody understood the nature of war better than the ones that actually had to fight, put their lives on the line to defend homes and families. Gilbert might not have been one of those people but he had seen enough of them die and had heard of enough reasons and excuses to fight on the side they had chosen. Some of them he had held while they struggled, realising that death wasn’t something quite as fleeting and momentary as the war they fought but a permanent result of their badly-placed trust.

Gilbert’s father had been in the military once, his grandfather and his own father too, so it could be said he was of a military background, his home had always felt like an army outpost or barracks. With a lot of discipline and rough love he had been raised and he had served the mandatory two years of service before deciding to become a doctor instead, though he made it into university by a hair and found himself struggling the next few years to remain there. He hadn’t even graduated, the Collapse had changed his plans for good, and suddenly in the Fourth Empire, they needed soldiers again, soldiers and train operators who knew the tunnels and their twists and turns by heart.

“What did you want to become when you were in school?” He asked Tolys, out of the blue. Watching the gaggle of children play ball on the small patch of grass across the street had made Gilbert wander if any of them dreamed of becoming writers, musicians maybe or artists. Something that had nothing to do with wars and politics and more with their own pleasure and that of others, more with culture and humanity.

Tolys, surprised by his sudden question just as much as Gilbert had surprised himself, didn’t really know if he should answer and if yes, what the answer would be. In the gymnasium, he had been a fan of Mickiewicz’s poetry, had thought of trying to follow his poetic example but that had needed actual talent and not just a common comprehension of the language itself. Even that Tolys hadn’t possessed, having spent his school years in a Polish school after his family had decided to move.

“Nothing, I suppose,” he answered, truthfully. “My father was in the military administration for a long time. He had plans of me doing something similar after service and collage.”

“Yours too?” Gilbert asked, surprised that he and the lieutenant had one actual thing in common. That seemed to be all they shared, however, coupled with their lack of liking for one another.

“My what?”

“Oh, nothing…”

They had managed to find a phone but due to the sudden snowfall a week ago the line had been broken and still hadn’t been repaired. They promised Tolys to try and do it as quick as possible when they saw his lack of pleasure with the news – they had only one actually quick way to keep in touch with China town and that was the phone line, he wouldn’t allow someone’s lack of attention or interest in repairing the damage become a major problem in the future.

As the sun’s light began diminishing, making way for the dark hours of night, people began lighting the paper lanterns and a rich golden light suddenly filled the town, making it seem so much more inviting, so much more comforting and warm than the Border Post. Now that calling Erzsebet was impossible, Gilbert began paying more attention to the people around him, hoping to spot Ludwig and Feliciano in the crowd. It was getting dark and cold and he would like to have them around so they could have dinner and not miss their bedtime.

The kids were nowhere to be seen though and despite knowing that there was no place they could really go to, Gilbert began feeling a steady bubble of dread inflating in the pit of his stomach. No matter where he looked, there wasn’t even a trace of them and most importantly, they weren’t even close to the shrine he had explicitly told Ludwig to stay close to.

“What do you think of it?” He tried to start a conversation with Tolys again, just so they wouldn’t be smoking in complete and awkward silence. “I mean that back there, the way Ivan told us to get lost.”

“It’s best not to know too much about those things anyway,” Tolys shrugged. “I’ve learned so far that the less you know the better.”

“I should’ve guessed you’d think that way. You’ve always struck me as a coward.”

Tolys had to grit his teeth so he wouldn’t strike back with an insult. He’d hate to start a scene in the middle of the street, something Gilbert perhaps didn’t care about.

“And that’s coming from you,” he said instead, “considering it’s been years now and you still haven’t packed up and left. You always say bad things about the administration here and you always try to bend the rules…If you hate it that much and if it’s not working for you, why haven’t you left yet? You can go anywhere now, you don’t even need a passport. No, you stay and you still do whatever Ivan tells you to because you know you’ll have nothing if you leave. They’ll never want you anywhere knowing where you came from. Come on, tough guy, leave your family, pack up and leave if you’re not a coward yourself!”

He knew he had most likely crossed a line, Tolys had never respected boundaries when it came to the doctor, but what he hadn’t expected was for Gilbert to grab him by the uniform and shove him away from the wall they were leaning against. Without giving him even a second to regain his balance, Gilbert swung his fist to actually punch him and it would’ve been one very painful and well-placed punch hadn’t Tolys dodged it. He tried to angle himself to get in a kick, not caring anymore about decency if Gilbert wouldn’t either, but the doctor was quicker than him and not only dodged but also threw himself forwards and tackled the lieutenant to the ground.

“Boys, boys!” A woman screamed. Two men stepped forward from the group of passers-by to pull the kicking doctor away while he clung to Tolys, who only managed to tear the collar of his shirt and leave a nasty scratch across the nearly white, unhealthy skin of his cheek. “Don’t fight, not on the street! Two good boys like you, rolling in the mud, no, no…”

Another man helped Tolys to his feet and stayed close to him, ready to pull him back if he decided to throw another punch.

“It’s not good wasting your strength on yourselves,” the woman kept scolding them. “Two healthy boys like you, you should be giving children an example. Come on, come, let’s get you some dinner, something to drink. Everyone forgets their grudges when you have to share a table!”

They sat them down on one of the few long tables placed across the patch of dead grass surrounding the shrine of their idol. The kitchen was just across the street from them but people chose to sit outside while the weather was still warm enough to allow it. Everybody was free to come and go from five to ten when the kitchen handed out dinner.

The woman brought them two plates of stew and two cups which she was polite enough to ask if she could fill. Tolys agreed almost immediately, needing the drink, while Gilbert hesitated – he had drunk enough alcohol in his life and probably would drink just as much if not more by the end of it but he didn’t want to drink in the company of the lieutenant. Firstly, because he wasn’t sure how the alcohol would affect his temper after they had swapped punches and secondly, Tolys was a far better drinker and Gilbert would hate to make a fool of himself.

They each had a shot of strong, bitter alcohol and began eating, nearly turning their back to the other in the meantime.

“Can’t even fight,” Gilbert couldn’t help but mumble, loudly enough so Tolys could overhear, touching the hurt skin of his face. “Using girly tricks…Says he’s not a coward even, that bastard…”

“I can hear you,” Tolys reminded him. “You call me a coward, say it to my face then!”

Gilbert turned around so suddenly then that Tolys was almost ready to punch him before he even raised his fist, but instead of tackling him again, the doctor said:

“Bastard, you’re a bastard! A bitch too, licking Braginsky’s boots. That’s what you are. Pass me the bottle, you good for nothing son of a bitch!”

“Here you go,” Tolys said, thrusting the bottle in the outstretched hand. “You hypocrite! Weren’t you big on religion, huh? Weren’t you a good Christian, look at you drink! You curse like a sailor, you’re a horrible, careless doctor, have no respect for your neighbours…”

They drank as they passed one another insults until they were buzzed enough to even forget their fight and begin joking instead, reminding themselves to be careful, they had to go back to Ivan later. And suddenly Gilbert remembered something very important – not only would Ivan be waiting for them to come back sober but Ludwig and Feliciano too.

“I can’t,” he said, shaking his senses awake again and refusing some man’s offer of a cigarette, one Tolys had already reached to take despite it obviously being one of the fun ones that the Chinese charged extra for but after you’ve already unwittingly smoked half of it. They made them different lately, they barely really smelled of Marijuana, making the trap much more likely to ignore. “I forgot…We forgot the boys, where are they, Jesus Christ…”

He shot up from the bench, looking around frantically now. The crowd had dispersed, everyone making their way home for the night, but there was no sight of Ludwig and Feliciano, not even Kiku. It was already getting late and he had let himself be lulled by the alcohol, assuring himself that the boys were just around though he couldn’t see them.

Tolys sat up right after Gilbert, feeling the dread and fear that had crept suddenly in his raspy voice. He couldn’t say that he had forgotten the boys, he hadn’t forgotten their responsibility, but he too, like Gilbert, had thought that they were somewhere near, surely they had to be hungry and had come to look for food. China town really wasn’t bigger than half of the Border Post, there was nowhere they could’ve gotten lost.

With fewer people around it was much easier to search though the possibility of finding someone who had seen the boys and could tell them where they had gone was also slimmer. The more they looked the bigger Gilbert’s worry became until the panic also began to draw near, threatening to cloud his judgement. One thing was certain – he would be beating the sense into both Ludwig and Feliciano when he found them, no matter who was guilty and how much he loved them.

Another difference between China town and their Post was people’s perception of direction. China town had only one gate unlike the Border post and thus despite its circular form, people didn’t judge the distance inside the town in terms of rings and circles, instead referred to the part of the town between the front gate and their deity’s shrine as their front and centre. The back or bottom part of town began only a short walk away from the shrine and was generally much dimmer, with fewer lanterns to light the streets. Despite that, the neighbourhood had its own reputation among the men of the Border Post as China town’s red lights district. It was the last place one would expect to find kids but with no trace of the boys in the better part of town, their feet only naturally took them there.

The difference was remarkable between that part of town and the other and not only because the night became much darker suddenly. There weren’t as many people on the streets and the only ones out were women in tight clothes and tattooed men who tried to appear intimidating but were about half of Gilbert and Tolys’ size. Gilbert was so horribly angry and worried by then that he hardly even paid anyone attention, not even to Tolys, who had to run after him after every time he stopped to ask if anyone had seen two boys, obviously not Asian.

“Oh, the little blonde sweetheart with those two adorable angels?” One woman recalled when Tolys asked her if she had seen any children around. “I’ve seen them, yes, I even spoke to them…”

Immediately the lieutenant called Gilbert over and the woman, though obviously not shy, became a bit reluctant to speak to them. Seeing Gilbert so violently urgent and having him raise his voice at her wasn’t helping either.

“Well it was hours ago, a bit before dinner…They just came on a walk, it’s rare to see kids here…I think Kacchan gave them something to eat, hey, Kacchan! Do you remember the three little boys that came earlier?”

Another woman called back from up the street, “Yes!”

“Where did they go after you gave them lunch? These men here’re their parents, they’re worried…”

“Oh, I told them to go to Su-san’s for proper food! They were so polite, you have amazing boys, sirs!”

“Su-san runs the tea house…” The woman they were speaking to explained, reluctantly. Rightfully so, both Gilbert and Tolys knew what the tea house was. Not as though they had ever been there, they had heard rumours. And according to the rumours in no other post-Collapse establishment had more virginities been lost – if Yao wanted to really preserve the dignity of the town, he’d have to think first of shutting the place down.

“Don’t be too angry at the kids, they probably didn’t know,” Tolys tried to placate Gilbert but the doctor was deaf and blind to everything.

They reached the building in record time and were met by the entrance with the teenage guard that had brought Yao to them earlier that day. The boy was still dressed up in his uniform to impress the ladies and was already having a chat with one until he saw Gilbert striding towards him.

“Lieutenant, sir,” he stuttered, rudely pushing the girl aside to salute. “I was looking after the boys, honest, sir, I…!”

“Out of the way!” Gilbert yelled, crossing the threshold and immediately feeling a wave of warmth, the smell of perfumes and sugar teasing his nose. “And go home! If Yao only knew how you spend your free time, disgracing your uniform in brothels…Unbelievable!”

After years of renovation, the first floor was left almost bare, a wide space separated by paper walls into a few cushion-filled rooms. The air was filled with scented smoke and the unpleasant smell of weed and cigarettes clung to the walls and soft furniture.

When Gilbert marched into the vestibule, a room better furnished and well-lit, he stopped so abruptly that Tolys, who hurried in after him, nearly bumped into his back. There, on the floor between a soft beige couch and a wooden coffee table, Ludwig knelt beside Feliciano while Kiku knelt on the other side of the visibly distressed boy, rubbing his back as he cried and dry-heaved, struggling as if but unable to throw up. Ludwig looked just as bad, his flushed face taking on an expression of utter horror and embarrassment the moment he saw his brother at the door.

“Ludwig!” Gilbert screamed, his face losing the little colour it had as soon as he saw Feliciano’s horrible state.

“Gil…” Ludwig stuttered out. He blinked owlishly, a wave of tremors he couldn’t control overcoming his body. His mouth opened, throat working desperately to form a coherent sound. Before he could manage to, however, Ludwig fell back into the couch and then into the embrace of the woman he had sat beside, no longer dizzy but unconscious.


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeey, guys, a little late but here's the third chapter that should've been part of chapter 2, that's why it's so short c: I really hope to finish this fic and the one I just posted yesterday by the end of the year but university and work are taking their toll, unfortunately, so I don't know how possible it will be. Comments and polite critique are appreciated as always, thank you, and see you next chapter! <33

He was dying. There was no better way to describe the feeling but with that permanent state, perhaps it felt like drowning because he couldn’t breathe either and there were black spots dotting his vision – not just spots but entire distorted patches, like an eccentric piece of art.

Someone was holding onto him like a vice when Ludwig actually came to and he tried, or believed he did, he couldn’t feel his arms, to squirm out of that grip. A monster had gotten him, he could smell its putrid breath already, and when Ludwig came nowhere close to weakening its grip, he began crying. The monster’s giant paw grabbed his face and a moment later Ludwig again couldn’t breathe, that only made him cry even more desperately, kick his legs and struggle.

“Throw it up!” Someone screamed in his ear, the voice coming as though through cotton. “Spit everything out, right now! Have you any idea…without any sterile equipment…do you want me to stick garden hoses down your throats to clean out your stomachs, you morons!”

He managed to finally push away the monster’s hand from his face but the moment it was gone, Ludwig felt the bile rising in his throat. He could hear Feliciano crying but that was also horribly muffled and the next thing he knew, Ludwig was again losing consciousness, letting the monster hold him so tightly while he spat out remains of food and emptied his stomach.

The next time he woke up, his heavy body was lying in a bed, covered loosely by a wool blanket. Ludwig struggled to open his eyes and the thin eyelids barely raised enough to let him find out that it was still night. He could see a door leading to something that might have been a kitchen where atop a dining table sat a thick candle. Ludwig could tell there were men sitting there, speaking in hushed voices something he couldn’t quite understand and drinking, their shadows crawling creepily over the walls.

Someone else was in the bed with him, Ludwig could feel them breathing steadily. He lifted his head just barely so he could look over his shoulder and see, relief immediately rushing over him and making him feel just a bit better. Feliciano was nestled behind his back sleeping, looking just a bit pale but otherwise alive and fine.

And to think the entire situation could’ve been so easily avoided if they had listened to Gilbert.

They hadn’t meant to stray so far from the shrine initially and Ludwig had been against it, not wanting to disappoint his brother. Kiku showed them the kitchens but all that was left from the lunch service were pieces of bread and fruit, just enough to fill their stomachs for an hour or two. Next, the boy took them to a small park where all the children played on the swings and monkey bars and Ludwig even let Feliciano convince him to join the game of football, though each team barely had five people. Meanwhile, Kiku sat quietly aside and watched them.

At first Ludwig had thought that the boy was just afraid of talking to them because they were strangers but the more he observed him, the more he began to think that Kiku was afraid of everybody. He didn’t seem to have any friends at all and when they asked, he quite shyly told them that he usually spent his time alone, helping Yao with his work or training with the recruits. And because he hung around older people or teenagers most of the time, Kiku had completely lost interest in the games and interests of his own peers.

He reminded Ludwig of himself a little bit, he too had had no friends before when they lived in the Empire. There had barely been kids on their part of the metro and because it had been there that the Empire’s ideologies formed initially, the people were mostly cold and bitter, unwelcoming and untrusting. They relied heavily on order and so it wasn’t allowed to have kids run around and laugh or make noise. Military recruitments started as early as thirteen with mandatory training camps, physical games and sports and hours of marching and learning formations they showed during their holidays. There was no time to be a child in the Empire and so Ludwig too had learned early on to rely mostly on himself. Having his brother nearly all the time out and about was also scary, made him feel lonely.

The Border Post was a bit better, if only because they were outside and could breathe somewhat fresh air. The children there had also been curious about them when they had come to live there and they had accepted them quickly, if only so they could learn what it was like to live underground, so close to the mythical Star.

Kiku never asked them that, even when he learned where they had come from, something Ludwig rarely mentioned because Gilbert had told him not to but Feliciano had a horribly big mouth and he still hadn’t learned that not so many people took kindly to Empire refugees. Maybe because Kiku wasn’t really sure what the Empire was or had been or he was just polite. There were parts of the Red Line and even the Ring where they had never seen anyone Asian, so maybe he knew to be about certain things.

They left the park when the sun began to set and they began to light the lanterns and Kiku led them through town so they could see the famed greenhouses and the kennel where they grew dogs. Feliciano was smitten with the puppies there, though most of them were scrawny and sick-looking, others had no fur or suffered horrible mutations, despite being quite loud, barking as soon as the boys neared their gates. They had had dogs in the Empire too, used them for protection, and Gilbert had promised to get them one when the opportunity came.

On the way back, Kiku led them down the main street, not wanting to walk in the dark shade by the walls. Caught up in his conversation with his new friend, Ludwig didn’t even notice when Feliciano slowed down and suddenly when he turned around to look for him, Ludwig had lost him. His stomach twisted with worry until he noticed his friend just up the street, talking to a stranger. The man had another petite woman hanging off his arm as she cooed at Feli and patted his head, apparently he had said something charming to her and that had caught the attention of the man.

“You can have one if you want,” the man was saying when Ludwig and Kiku ran back towards their friend, searching for something in the pocket of his dirty jacket. “They’re really tasty!”

“Thank you very much, sir!” Feliciano exclaimed, stretching out his little palm for the treat the man was offering him.

Remembering his brother’s warning not to take anything from strangers while they were there, Ludwig immediately grabbed Feliciano by the shoulders and pulled him back.

“No!” He yelled, startling Feli, who looked at him dumbly. “We don’t want any, thank you!”

“But…why?” Feliciano asked him, as if he had completely forgotten what Gilbert and the lieutenant had told them. It was only then that Ludwig noticed that the man really was holding out a lollipop, wrapped in a colourful wrapper and not something even mildly dangerous-looking.

“You can have one too,” the man offered, startled too by Ludwig’s sudden appearance. “No need to be shy…”

Feeling embarrassed suddenly, maybe he had misgauged the situation, Ludwig loosened his grasp on Feliciano and shook his head, refusing politely. He let Feliciano take his candy.

“We have to be heading back now,” Ludwig reminded him. Having overheard, the woman gasped. “We haven’t gotten dinner yet…”

“You haven’t eaten anything yet?! That’s not good for little kids, do you want me to go get you something? God, you’re so adorable…”

She pinched Feliciano’s cheeks while he sucked busily on his lollipop. They were quickly ushered towards another unfamiliar building and before anyone could protest the boys were being seated on a wide luxurious couch in the middle of a dimly lit room. Another woman, this one different than the first, put bowls of steaming soup in front of them and later set the table with plates of sweets and cookies and soft, chewy candy – all they could ask for. A third woman sat with them on the couch, smoking while she watched and pampered them, brushed crumbs from their mouths and sugar off their sticky fingers.

They gave them juice that had an odd, bitter after-taste to it but the powder sugar that covered the cookies helped it go down and suddenly even Ludwig didn’t mind being there and listened to Feliciano when he took charge and began exploiting his cute smile and polite words to get them more candy and warm food and more of that bitter but fruity juice.

“No, no,” Kiku pulled at his sleeve when Ludwig was coaxed to drink now a third cup of the heated drink, “you mustn’t…”

He was the only one who hadn’t yet drunk or eaten anything despite the women’s coaxing and assurance that it was all safe to eat. Even Ludwig had tried to talk him into it and no matter Kiku’s distress he shrugged him off to take another large gulp, letting the liquid swirl in his tummy and warm him nicely. Feliciano was already slouched into his side, awake but nearly falling asleep already.

He leaned into him readily, liking how good everything felt all of a sudden until the door opened and in strode somebody loud whose presence didn’t feel good at all.

“Oi, these are the doctor’s kids,” that someone said, kicking his feet up on the coffee table shamelessly and it was only then that Ludwig notice he was already sitting beside them. It was actually the boy that had opened the gates for them that afternoon…

“Aren’t you a bit young to be at a place like this?” He asked, pulling at Kiku’s cheek until the boy finally had enough, pushed away his hand and sat up to run out of the smoke-filled room, leaving Ludwig and Feliciano alone, something he shouldn’t have really done.

“As if you’re much older, Sookkun!” The woman on Ludwig’s left laughed, running her hand through his hair to get him to calm down again and lean back into the couch. “There’s no such thing as age when it comes to love, is there? But I shouldn’t be telling you that!”

“Loving can be an overwhelming thing,” she said, this time to Ludwig, reaching for the table where a plate of candies sat. “But it’s also over-complicated. Love is one and the same, no matter who or what it’s directed to. People think there’re boundaries to what it is…”

She picked up a white piece of candy from the plate and offered it to Ludwig. Unable to raise his hand to take it, he merely opened his mouth and waited for her to place it on his tongue where it began dissolving almost immediately, leaving behind an almost chalky aftertaste. It wasn’t very pleasant and Ludwig had thought it would be something sweet, seeing how greedily Feliciano had been devouring those through the evening and Soo, who allowed the woman now pampering him to feed him one too, seemed to be completely ignorant to the tasteless pill, sharing it even with the woman while they kissed shamelessly.

Ludwig felt his face becoming hot while he watched them, a sudden wave of warmth washing over him though he could tie it to the piece of candy initially. It felt even more unpleasant and he tried to reach for his glass of juice on the table but, scarily, he couldn’t move, as if his arms were no longer there.

“It’s okay,” the woman that had given him the candy laughed, putting her hands on his shoulders and squeezing gently, enough for Ludwig to feel the faintest pressure. “You’re okay. Everything’s here. Say, is there someone you love very much? Mommy or daddy? A little sister?”

“I don’t have a mom and dad…” Ludwig said, wondering if it was allowed to only love his parents as much as he loved Gilbert or Liz? He wasn’t sure what the woman meant and she didn’t catch him ask her about it, his voice too faint.

In his arms Feliciano stirred, complaining that he felt ill – maybe Ludwig loved him most, actually. He spent the most time with Feliciano, ever since the Empire. But he was so shy, maybe it was better to say that for some reason Feliciano had decided to spend his own time with Ludwig instead. They hid behind each other when it got too rough to handle, protected each other and counted on each other, and at night when plagued by the nightmares of the new world neither could sleep, they reassured each other.

“Ludwig…” Feli said, looking up at him through hooded eyes. His flushed face appeared ghostly under the faint light of the candles. “I don’t feel so good…”

He pushed himself away from Ludwig so suddenly that it was a shame Soo wasn’t there anymore – he had walked out with his girl just minutes ago – to catch him. It snapped Ludwig out of his dazed ogling and he followed him off the couch, kneeling beside the heaving boy on the floor.

“Feli?!” He gasped, sobering up almost immediately.

No sooner had he touched his friend’s back did the door open again so sharply that the loud bang that it collided with the frame startled him.

“Ludwig!” He heard, looking up to face his brother’s face, twisted in a grimace of disbelief and so pale, out of fright and worry.

“Gil…” Ludwig stuttered out. He blinked owlishly, a wave of tremors he couldn’t control overcoming his body. His mouth opened, throat working desperately to form a coherent sound. Before he could manage to, however, Ludwig fell back into the couch and then into the embrace of the woman he had sat beside, no longer dizzy but unconscious.

He didn’t remember how they brought them to the apartment Yao had lent them for the time of their visit but when he woke up the morning after, Ludwig felt horrible. He wasn’t sure what had happened but it was as if someone had bashed his head in with a hammer. His muscles ached and pulsed and he felt ill.

With the memories of last night foggy at best, Ludwig felt immense relief to find Feliciano sleeping soundly beside him, wrapped in the wool blanked they had shared through the night. He could hear a commotion coming from outside and people walking around the apartment. Curious, Ludwig struggled through the grasp of his pain and fatigue and got out of bed to see what was going on.

It was still early it seemed since nobody had come to wake them up yet. Ludwig found Ivan in the kitchen, sitting alone on the dinner table and making sandwiches while merrily whistling a tune. He seemed to be in a strikingly good mood and seeing Ludwig in the hall he quickly waved him over to have breakfast and some water, babbling about how there was nothing scary about a hangover.

“It’s the most normal thing in the world,” said the colonel, forcing Ludwig to drink the water he had poured him. “Oh, the amount of times we’ve gotten drunk here, Ludwig, the stories we have, you won’t even believe some of them! No, no, you caused us no trouble at all. I even told your brother yesterday not to be too bitter with you two and not to worry, you’ll live.”

Speaking of Gilbert, just as Ludwig finished his water, the doctor walked inside the apartment. He stopped by the kitchen but when Ludwig told him good morning, Gilbert said nothing – he didn’t even look at him, as if he wasn’t there.

“We’re ready with loading the truck to go,” he told Ivan. “We should be heading out soon.”

“Great! I’m just finishing up something light to snack on later and we’ll be off,” the colonel smiled. Noticing Ludwig’s frown when Gilbert walked out, again without bothering to look his way, he smiled encouragingly, “Give him some time. He won’t be bitter forever, he’s probably thinking about all the stuff he’s done when drunk, right?”

But that didn’t relieve Ludwig’s shame one bit.

He woke up Feliciano a few minutes later so they could go and help Tolys when Ivan asked them. Feli was quiet too, drinking some water when they told him to and then proceeding to complain to Ludwig – but quietly, so he wouldn’t catch Gilbert’s attention – about how horrible he felt. Actually, it was Ludwig who had to be careful not to make Gilbert angrier than he obviously still was, his brother had a very soft spot for Feliciano, wouldn’t give him the silent treatment even if it was to teach him a lesson for misbehaving. He had told Ludwig once that there was no such thing but Ludwig knew that Gilbert saw a clear distinction between raising his brother and raising Feliciano, whatever it was.

Yao met them all outside when it was time to go and unlike yesterday, he was dressed in a modest green uniform and boots, a few distinct military insignia and the golden star and ribbon on his chest showing his status in the army. The girl from yesterday and the two guards, one Ludwig recognizing as Soo from the teahouse, walking after him along with Kiku.

As soon as he saw them, Soo left Yao’s side and walked towards them.

“I’m so glad you two are okay!” He gasped, suddenly so close to them that Feliciano hid behind Ludwig in case he tried something. “I’m Young Soo, you know, from the teahouse yesterday. I’m sorry I left you two, I shouldn’t have…I totally got an earful about yesterday too, so don’t you worry…You’ll know better next time, buddies!”

“Yeah…” Ludwig shyly agreed, feeling Feliciano nodding behind him eagerly. He looked at Kiku, remembering how he had run from them yesterday and wondered if he had gotten a scolding too for their mistake. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t coming to see them now and cowered behind Yao, like he had yesterday when they met him.

“Are you glad about the provisions you have picked up?” Yao asked Ivan.

“Of course!” The colonel exclaimed, “And we’re also happy to have you come with us back to the outpost! We really wish to repay ourselves, China town has been doing so much for us…”

“Naturally. We respect the opportunity we have to be helpful. Young Soo!”

The young soldier stood at attention immediately, “Yes, sir!”

“You’ll stay here to guard the gates! I expect to find the place in order when we return!”

Young Soo’s enthusiasm visibly deflated after hearing that order, he had been getting ready to go to the Border Post, see what people were up to there, but maybe he would get the chance another time. Meanwhile, Yao told his brother and the girl to get ready to leave. They would be driving behind their truck with half of the offered provisions.

“I’m so sorry,” Kiku told them when it was time to say goodbye. Ludwig and Feliciano were already in the car and it was obvious how hard it was for the little boy to come up to them and apologize. His bottom lip was already trembling. “I didn’t mean to run…”

“It’s okay,” Ludwig assured him. “We don’t remember much anyway…We should’ve listened to you.”

Before they could say a longer goodbye, Tolys already started the car and the rumble of the engine made it hard to hear Kiku’s quiet voice. It was time to go…

“Truth be told,” Tolys said, once they were finally on the road and the gates of China town closed behind them, “I feel really horrible.”

He sounded so too, which surprised Ivan - he appeared to be the only one who, after yesterday's night of drinking and heated debating, wasn't being tortured by an incessant hangover. In the backseat, Gilbert had slouched back into the seat, groaning in agreement – another victim of a hangover and lack of sleep.

“Tell me about it. For once we have something to agree with.”

He had Feliciano’s head in his lap and a hand around Ludwig’s shoulders. Feeling not especially rested, only a few minutes of uneventful driving made Ludwig finally close his heavy eyes and lean his head into the window to doze.

Surprisingly so, one hand stopped him, pulled him instead carefully towards his brother. Wordlessly, Ludwig laid his heavy and aching head on his brother’s lap. He didn’t dare look up at Gilbert, but when he felt him brush aside his hair so it wouldn’t tickle his closed eyelids, when he held it just so over his head, so protectively, so calming, he knew – Gilbert’s anger at him would pass too, soon.

They drove much faster, eager to return home, so by the time they reached the Border Post’s gates, the sun had just begun to set, leaving them with plenty of time to plan a celebratory dinner to welcome their guests from China town with.

Ivan ordered that someone else care for the preparations while Tolys and Gilbert went to clean and dress for the occasion. He too needed an hour to get ready, it wouldn’t be appropriate to host events as disheveled from the long trip as he was. So he showed Yao to an apartment he could use with his companions for their stay while he continued towards his own, where Irina was definitely waiting for him by now – she must’ve been worried when he didn’t come home yesterday.

“I’m home, Ira,” Ivan called out into the apartment, stepping in and closing the door behind his back. There was truly no place like home, only seconds inside and he could feel how immensely tired he had gotten. His feet ached in his boots and he was so sweaty and dirty. “Where’s Anton? Someone’s not coming to greet me…”

Instead of Anton, Irina came rushing into the hall with an excited smile on her face.

“Oh, Vanya, come see who just came home, quickly!” She exclaimed, nearly dragging Ivan after herself into the kitchen. And really, there was the greatest surprise.

On one of the chairs by the kitchen table sat Natalia, alive and visibly unharmed. She smiled when she saw Ivan, barely containing her joy, and got up so quickly that she was already wrapping her arms around him before Ivan could even make himself believe that his little sister was actually there and it wasn’t merely a lie too good to be true.

“Natasha…” He gasped, feeling her warmth against himself.

“Van’” Natalia said, allowing herself for a moment to feel the happiness and pleasure of finally feeling her brother’s scent surround her, to feel the beat of his heart call out to her and to hear his name again, have it roll off her tongue and hang on her lips. “I’m home, I missed you so horribly much…”

And if Natalia was back home, not only would Ivan finally manage to take a breath of fresh air, knowing she was alive and safe – her being home meant that finally, someone had managed to return from Moscow Minor. Someone had seen the Star.


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey guyyys, two fics updated in one day, that's a treat, huh :D I had a dream yesterday set in such a cool dystopian future kind of thing and it got me in the mood to finally start working on this again, my next fics I'll update soon too, I have starters and am actively working on them. With this story, we're finally getting to the actiony plot and all the drama, I really hope you do stick around for more, until then, please comment, offer polite critique and have a Merry Christmas! c:

Her palm met his cheek before he could even greet her. And though he had been expecting it, that still didn’t mean that having the print of Erzsebet’s hand on his face was less embarrassing or hurt less.

Gilbert heard two tiny gasps come from behind his back and felt Ludwig and Feliciano step a bit closer to him, fearing that they two were in big trouble with Erzsebet. But she barely looked at them, too busy staring Gilbert down.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We didn’t have a phone there, I would’ve called…”

“Bastard,” Erzsebet spat at him, not much interested in his apology now. “How could you do this to me, Gilbert?”

She held her hands out for the boys to take and when they hesitated, Erzsebet forcefully pulled them into the apartment and away from Gilbert, as if he would take them away for good this time and never bring them back.

Figuring that it could’ve gone far worse than just a slap, Gilbert could do nothing more than sigh and finally close the door. He needed a shower desperately, dealing with Erzsebet could wait another few minutes. But there was another thing Gilbert had been thinking of doing the entire way to the Border Post and that was far more urgent it seemed than apologizing to Erzsebet.

He washed in the small bathroom, thankfully there was enough warm water, and after cleaning off the slippery sheen of hard and scentless soap, Gilbert dressed and walked past the kitchen and the room he shared with Erzsebet, right for the boys’ room.

Erzsebet had taken Feliciano out a few minutes ago – as far as Gilbert had overheard – to help her in the kitchen, apparently Irina had run over to get her. That meant that Ludwig was alone in his room, having politely denied going out, almost as if he had been sensing the serious conversation Gilbert had wanted to have with him.

He found Ludwig sitting on his bed, absently turning the pages of a comic book. When he saw Gilbert coming in he quickly closed it and silently sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for Gilbert to heavily sit down beside him.

For a moment neither said anything, that is until Gilbert finally decided to start, figuring Ludwig wouldn’t dare be first.

“I trusted that you could be responsible for Feliciano, and yourself, yesterday,” he said, sighing while brushing his clammy palms through his hair, “I shouldn’t have done that, I should’ve been responsible for you two. Erzsebet was right, this isn’t the Empire. And we’re not raising you like we would if we were still there.”

“I…” Ludwig opened his mouth to say but Gilbert interrupted him.

“You could’ve gotten seriously hurt! And the reason I was so angry at you was that you didn’t listen to me and went off and took stuff from strangers. You didn’t think about yourself but you also didn’t think about Feliciano and Kiku and you were _responsible_. What if you got poisoning? I can’t even explain to you how dangerous overdosing on anything, especially alcohol and…and…that _stuff_ they sell in China town, is!”

“I’m so sorry,” Ludwig whispered, his face burning with shame. “I didn’t…I didn’t mean not to listen…Feli wanted…”

“Was what he wanted right and allowed?”

“No…”

“Then it was your duty to stop him from doing it!”

Gilbert sighed, again, “Look, Luddy…I know it’s hard on us. And I guess it’s my fault too, I…I don’t seem to be treating you like a brother, more like a father and that’s not the best I can be doing for you right now, yeah? I just…really want to count on you. And I forget really that this isn’t the Empire, that you shouldn’t have to be responsible for things so much when I can help it…So…”

He straightened up and patted Ludwig on the back, “No more bullshit from you.”

“I promise,” Ludwig nodded eagerly, deciding then that he would never disagree with Gilbert or not follow an order of his, ever.

Dinner was usually held in the canteen, though people could bring boxes or bowls, take their dinner and go back home if they had bigger families to feed. The majority, however, took the opportunity to be together, share stories of their troubles and miseries and the general routine life in the Border Post. The community was already small enough that rumours spread like the flue most of the time but dinners in the cafeteria were always greatly enjoyed – there wasn’t any need to decorate either for the celebration in honour of their allies from China town, they had all celebrated one of the children’s birthday the day before and the colourful paper decorations were still hanging across the walls while paper flowers were put across the tables, covered in a variety of pretty covers and cloths.

Upon hearing that their neighbours had agreed to help them fight the impending crisis, citizens of the Border Post collectively began preparing to host a good dinner with meat and vegetables. Their friendship with China town was worth celebrating, considering that the two colonies were together alone in the most outer circle of Moscow Major – being able to negotiate and help each other helped people have their sense of humanity and belonging. And when even Yao and the two kids that he had brought insisted on helping with the cooking and offered their help in whichever part of their system another hand was needed, people were delighted to have such caring allies – though they sometimes thought of themselves a bit too highly.

When the tables were set and everybody that had decided to come was already looking for places to sit, Ivan strode in, dressed rather plainly, and immediately found Yao. He sat his old friend down on one of the more central tables with the best cover and fullest bouquet of paper flowers in the empty glass, before going for the kitchen to get Irina and perhaps a bottle of something alcoholic. He returned quickly after, leading Irina along and happy to introduce her, not knowing she and Yao had met already and so the only person left to really introduce was Natalia, who came a little bit later, dressed and cleaned for the occasion.

The table closest to Ivan’s was reserved for Tolys, Eduard and Raivis and Tolys had called Feliks over despite knowing the other two weren’t on the best terms with him and neither was Feliks but who really was he on good terms with…So Tolys put himself between a rock and a hard place, standing Feliks’ incessant chatter about today and Edward’s quick accusatory glances. At least he hadn’t gone as far as to call over Gilbert, who sat now on a table to Ivan’s left with Erzsebet and Aleksander and Vladimir, the two who had returned with Natalia from Moscow Minor. They were apparently having a heated discussion, something unrelated to Gilbert’s origins but scary enough that they had made the kids go sit with the rest of their schoolmates so they wouldn’t have to listen to the conversation.

Everybody by then had heard, actually, of their miraculous return, only Ivan, Tolys and Gilbert had been somewhat surprised. They had to learn the details hours afterward but they hadn’t been the only ones surprised – when that same afternoon the familiar military truck had neared the outer gates of the post, Raivis, who had been guarding, had nearly toppled down from the tower, as white in the face as if he had seen a ghost. In his haste, he had run to open the gate after making sure to check the number of the car.

“They’re back!” He called out, quickly grabbing the attention of everybody else either patrolling along the wall or working in the gardens. “Somebody call Moscow Major, they’re back!”

Everyone that had reached for their weapons immediately dropped them, flocking towards the gates to greet their friends. Feliks, being one with relatively bigger experience, put himself in charge and was of the first to go and see what was going on. He told Raivis to get a grip and run to the office to find Edward – one of them had to contact Ivan in China town if they could and see if they had any missed calls from Moscow Major. It was impossible that their three-man squad had driven through the armed posts along the inner and then outer bow of the city without anyone calling to let them know first that the mission had gone good and they would be returning to the Border Post soon.

It was for that reason that Feliks remained skeptical when he saw the truck roll to a stop now inside the borders of the Post. Even when he saw Natalia, Aleksander and Vladimir get out of the car, much to the surprise and happiness of their friends and neighbours who, when they saw them, quickly ran to greet them with cries of joy.

“You didn’t call…” Feliks said, approaching Natalia. Meanwhile, she tried to walk past him, ignoring him on her way towards the administrative building. It was odd seeing her now after so long and since, after almost a month, everyone in the Post had begun to believe that their brave volunteers had met a fate similar to that of the first group that had gone, it was odd seeing them back – almost as if they weren’t real but ghosts.

“Out of my way,” Natalia snapped at him, walking right past Feliks without even sparing him a glance.

“What happened over there?” Feliks, deciding that running after Natalia – who he disliked greatly and found prudish – would be pointless, walked back and asked Aleksander. Feeling himself kind of in charge while both Ivan and Tolys were away, he wanted to learn as quickly as possible what the reason was that nobody had called to announce the success of the mission.

Like Natalia, Aleksander too appeared to be tired from the long trip and, given his grim expression, something else seemed to have been bothering him deeply ever since their return now to the outer ring from Moscow Minor. Unlike Natalia, however, despite his visible reluctance to relive and retell something so horrible, Aleks acknowledged Feliks’ question and he walked with him while he spoke, one hand around his shoulder as if he needed to brace himself.

“Horrible things, brother, very horrible things we saw there…” He sighed, even now shuddering visibly. “You won’t believe how awful it was, in the very centre of it, where the Star was. So we drove over there, there really isn’t much radiation there, but…There are bodies there, man. Actual dead bodies, bunches of them, in the tunnels underground. And we go back and tell the administration and you guess what they tell us? They say not to spread misinformation, they’ll deal with it on their own, can you believe it?”

“What bodies?” Feliks asked, remembering the corpse that found itself in their river a day ago.

“What do you mean what bodies? Dead ones! Civilians, women and children, men in uniforms from the Empire, we even saw our men, the ones that went there on the first expedition. And we tell all this and they say, don’t start talking about it, you know, and they gave us a shower and started baking us, like, they questioned Vladi for a whole day before letting him go. So…now you know the secret, guess I’ll have to kill you now.”

“Very funny…”

“I think we found something we shouldn’t have found, man.”

“But why would they send you there then?”

“No, I mean…I guess we found something we shouldn’t have but this time it isn’t our mess.”

“But we called yesterday, they said they didn’t know where you were…”

“It’s because they didn’t notify the radists right away…” Aleks groaned, a certain thought frustrating him. “Natalia wanted to call here the moment we came to the border post there but they just pushed us in a holding room after cleaning us up. And they told her that we weren’t going anywhere until we gave them reports, those were the rules. So we thought, alright, but then the report we were supposed to give turned into a one-on-one interrogation…That was three whole days ago, they let us go just earlier this morning, when it was still dark, and said that they would call you to notify that we were coming home…”

Feliks frowned, “Well, maybe we got the call, but…”

“I bet they didn’t call at all! It’s a miracle they let us go, you know, I get chills thinking about those bodies we found and those of ours, and I think to myself, while they’re all yelling at us and asking us questions. What if we end up at the same place, I think to myself…I hope they call Ivan, at least.”

They split ways, Aleks turning the corner to go home already, complaining how he just needed a shower to perk up, and though Feliks had a lot of other questions to ask him – he was always curious when it came to good stories – he too went back, not done with his shift. He’d learn more details eventually but not before telling Tolys all about it that same evening during dinner, actually, Feliks talked up a storm, not even minding that Edward and Raivis perhaps wanted to eat in peace.

“I’m just glad they’re back,” Tolys said, ending Feliks’ lengthy rant. He didn’t seem much interested in his dinner or drink, instead, he’d be sending the other table – or more specifically, Natalia – quick, longing glances. And he was a little bit bitter that they hadn’t managed to get home earlier, maybe then Tolys would’ve had the time to greet her, or if he knew she was actually coming back, he could’ve gotten her something from China town. What a missed opportunity.

Seeing that almost everybody was seated already, Ivan interrupted his conversation to stand up and call for their attention.

“We have another occasion to celebrate today,” he said, after thanking them for coming, “not only can we be thankful for China town’s comradery, but the members of the official mission to Moscow Minor all came home safe, completing something nobody else has done in almost ten years. It shows just how capable we are, that it’s more than possible for us to retake what’s ours! So we welcome home Natasha, Sashka and Vovka, the heroes that will become part of the Red Line’s history!”

The three supposed heroes met the applause and cheers rather dully and only the people they had told the truth to knew just why – they weren’t in especially high spirits but it was important to keep the rest of the people in such.

“Tolys,” after dinner was eaten and the majority began to head home with their families, Natalia came up to their table. By then Raivis had left, urged to go home already, while Eduard had been called to the colonel’s table to arrange something important for tomorrow. Her tone was horribly demanding and left no room for arguing, her presence chilling and impossible to ignore.

“Can I see you in private?”

“Of course, I’ll be outside in a moment,” Tolys replied, smiling gratefully that he had even been paid attention, he had wondered if anywhere through the night he would be able to go up to Natalia and strike at least a quick conversation before she left. He really had missed her and having Natalia be the one to approach him this time sparked the tiniest bit of hope and an entire bunch of pleasant emotions.

“Why does she want to see you?” Feliks raised a brow when, as soon as Natalia left, Tolys quickly began to pick up his plates to take back to the kitchen before going after her. He was already used to having Tolys chase after her but having it the other way around was unthinkable.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tolys said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, make sure to show up for your shift!”

“It’s pathetic running after her so much, you know?” Feliks reminded him but his words, though rather smart for him, only fell on deaf ears. Tolys was already running towards the kitchen to leave his tray. He was in such a hurry that Feliks couldn’t really help but think that he already knew what Natalia wanted to see him about.

But that was none of his business, shouldn’t be at least, though if it was up to Feliks, he’d rather keep Tolys there with him than let him chase after another.

His wishes were though none of his business…

The first thing Ivan did the next morning was demand an explanation from the central administration in Moscow Major. Not only that but despite the early hour he made the dispatcher call in the general who had authorized the mission and had later held his sister and his men hostage without giving them so much as a word of notice that they were well.

“Who do you think you are!” The major they gave him to speak to instead yelled over the phone. “Calling in at such a time and demanding! You speak with whoever we allow you to, colonel!”

“With all due respect, major,” Ivan said, “but I have the right to at least ask, and yes, demand, an explanation!”

“You will receive an explanation when we allow you to receive the official report! How dare you call in, asking questions so arrogantly? Have you any idea what it means to blatantly go against clear orders! Or do you want to go against the system so badly?”

The major cursed him and before Ivan could open his mouth to properly put him in his place, he hung up the phone. Nothing seemed to be going right for him that morning – after learning what they had put his men through, what the administration that he swore in had done under his nose, Ivan had been dangerously calm, he had shown great patience when he had proceeded to celebrate rather than call Moscow Major immediately, but…

They still hadn’t told them when to expect their rations. Quite a normal Sunday it was.

Ivan brought down the handle of the telephone with enough force to crack its plastic body, his fingers trembling around it in spite, just as the door to his office opened and Tolys stepped in rather meekly. In fact, seeing the colonel take his anger out on the phone made him regret coming in so early – he should’ve taken some more time off, if he wasn’t already a few hours late to the office.

“Oh, look at who finally decided to show up,” Ivan greeted him, his tone cheery despite his strained expression. Tolys couldn’t decide whether his face was growing pale of if he was furiously blushing, having to stand in front of the colonel. “What took you so long? You seem a little flustered. Had a hard night after going home?”

“I must’ve had a little too much to drink, yes…” Tolys mumbled.

“Alcohol is a bad advisor. In this case, don’t let it advise you to skip on your duties.” The message couldn’t have been any clearer, Ivan wasn’t in the best of moods. “What is it?”

“I…wanted to ask if Moscow Major had called in yet or if I should send them a report? To notify them that Natalia, Sasha and Vlad are back…”

“I already called, thank you for your consideration.”

Ivan frowned, just on the verge of continuing, until he noticed something out of place.

“Tolys?” He asked, startling the lieutenant further.

“Yes, sir…?”

“It really is a sign of disrespect for your post to be showing up like this to work,” Ivan scolded, gesturing towards his collar. “What is that on your shirt? And you haven’t even buttoned it properly…Don’t just stare, fix yourself!”

Tolys really should’ve stayed an extra hour at home to make sure he was at least looking his best. Now Ivan would only be that more suspicious, Tolys couldn’t have been faster when he turned around to fix his shirt, catching only a glance of the horrible red stain on the collar of it…

“I’m afraid we’ll have to disappoint our doctor,” the colonel told him while he did so, his fingers trembling even more so while he had Ivan behind his back watching him. “Rations won’t be coming in soon, apparently, the central administration has their own important things to deal with.”

“Like the mission to Moscow Minor?” Tolys asked cautiously, fixing his tie before turning back towards his superior.

“How much do you know about what happened yesterday?”

“Feliks told me about their return…He apparently learned from Sasha, the moment they came home…”

“That’s all there is to know about it for now.”

Tolys didn’t want to ask any more questions, seeing how on edge Ivan appeared to be. It wasn’t as though he had lied to him either, Natalia hadn’t said a word about her stay in Moscow Major and even when he had tried to ask he she had kept expertly changing the subject until Tolys could think of nothing else but her.

Actually, he should’ve been thinking of other things – particularly Ivan and what he would say if he had seen him sneak out of the canteen after Natalia yesterday evening.

She had stood waiting for him just outside, her cheeks and nose dusted brightly by the cold. When she had noticed Tolys walking towards her, Natalia had also begun to walk, leading the way despite it being the way to his apartment.

“I’m glad you came home safely,” Tolys had told her, catching up easily. He would occasionally, during these meetings of theirs, try to start a conversation but Natalia was rarely interested in talking, making the purpose of them being together more than obvious.

She had given him a short, mumbled reply, her presence though pulling him in, drawing him towards her like a moth to flame – Tolys couldn’t explain it, he was weak for her.

Natalia, however, wasn’t as warm as you’d expect a ray of sunshine to be, never had been actually, so Tolys had also gotten quite used to her denying him even the shortest moment to catch his breath, to savor the feeling of her body against his. He always promised himself to beg her the next time, to spare a moment, to at least catch her own breath before making him roll off her. He never did though, he could tell Natalia wasn’t the one to cuddle – all Tolys could do was hope that treatment wasn’t just reserved for him.

“You can just stay the night,” he had offered, watching Natalia, as slender as a willow tree, stand from the bed and begin to dress.

“I can,” she had said, merely agreeing with his statement but not to the invitation behind it.

Tolys had sighed then, “What about a drink though? It’s late, we could…”

“Not interested.”

“Alright…”

After having buttoned up her coat and straightened her clothes, Natalia had hastily folded his own shirt, put it on the bed before very suddenly turning towards Tolys.

“Thank you for tonight,” she had told him, almost endearingly, so unlike her usual tone, “we’ll see each other tomorrow.”

“Natasha,” Tolys had stopped her again on her way towards the bedroom door. Before he could stop to consider his boldness, he had stood from the bed and had crossed the room, melting the distance between them to plant a quick but incessant and confidant kiss to her thin lips.

“I would love it if you stayed tonight,” he had said after, looking down at Natalia’s shock and disbelief. She had quickly gotten hold of herself though, unfortunately for Tolys, who had received a quick slap across the face for his lack of consideration.

“Don’t misunderstand!” Natalia had warned him, turning around as gracefully as a ballerina before walking out, her coat floating around her hips like a summer dress, though heavy and woolen.

It had hurt, but, oh, what a fond memory – Tolys didn’t feel especially smug thinking of it right in front of Ivan but he did feel a bit better, despite his disheveled appearance. He hadn’t lied, he had had a bit too much to drink, he had drunk to Natalia’s safe return home and to all the possible future dates they could have…

“…that’s why it would be a shame if you ever told anyone, this is a government secret as of today until we clear things, _understood_?”

“Today, I heard, would be a lovely day, so of course, colonel!”

Ivan’s heavily concerned expression combined with his irritation that morning made Tolys know that he had said something completely irrelevant to whatever else he hadn’t just heard, too busy thinking of his meeting with Natalia last night.

“What is wrong with you today…?” Ivan asked, sounding quite baffled actually but before Tolys could come up with an explanation, a horrible scream pierced the quiet of the morning, quickly and effectively interrupting their conversation.

“Doctor!” A woman’s distraught voice came from the street, “I need the doctor, please!”

“What’s going on now?” Ivan said, the irritation in his tone unnatural, given the circumstances. He was always supportive and loving of the people he governed so one could only guess what had managed to anger him so much, so early in the morning.

He walked around his desk and strode towards the door before Tolys could look out the window and, not wanting to keep him waiting, in the case that he was needed, the lieutenant quickly followed Ivan out of the office.

There was already a small gathering of neighbours who had halted their chores and conversations to observe the scene the poor woman was causing by running around like a headless kitchen in her panic – Tolys recognized her as the kindergarten teacher, he wasn’t sure of her name. Gilbert and Elizaveta were already running towards her from the other end of the street – perhaps Eliza had run out to get him minutes before her colleague had lost her mind with worry and had followed her.

“What happened?” Gilbert asked, a little red in the face and short of breath.

“My boy…” the woman began to stutter, “My baby, he’s not okay, he’s not _breathing_ , he…!”

In her panic, the woman couldn’t say anything more but there wasn’t much to say either. They followed her back to the school where another caretaker sat trembling on the ground just near the fence surrounding the schoolyard – a dozen frightened eyes watched them from the windows, following the horrible scene as if it were a play and their little friend would hop up soon and declare the ending of it.

But the ending was drawing itself out until it wasn’t very interesting at all. The boy was unresponsive, his skin all covered in the cold sweat his clothes were also drenched in despite the incredibly high fever that was obvious to the touch. What’s more, just under the hem of the boy’s tee shirt Gilbert could see the large spots of red irritated skin, the sign of a forming, familiar rash.

They brought the boy to the clinic where Gilbert immediately made whatever staff they had clean and disinfect everything any of them had contact with and hand out gloves and masks, just in case whatever the boy had was airborne. The problem with post-apocalyptic medicine was that it was a gamble and unlike before, it had no way of progressing simply due to the lack of means to do so – thus why when anyone caught so much as a flue it made Gilbert’s hair stand up. One minute someone could be coughing, the next he could be dead and he’d have to go on to spin the wheel of all the possible causes – all that were only known.

Gilbert really, passionately, hated his job. And he hated feeling responsible even more.

“Is the boy allergic to anything? Has this happened before? When did you notice the rash?” He bombarded the crying and hysterical mother with questions, trying to find in her answers a straw to grasp and decide just what to give the child. Chest compressions couldn’t work forever but the boy had no other history of allergies, neither had he eaten anything more different, neither had he been anywhere outside of town, hadn’t even stepped close to the river with its toxic fumes. There was no apparent reason for the boy’s sudden state.

It took him a whole hour and something to finally say with confidence that they had stabilized the boy and that he was breathing again, the fever they had to struggle through with ice baths and a small dose of medication.

“Do you still think this isn’t serious?” Gilbert asked Ivan after letting the nurses take care of the child. “I have at least five other kids with the exact same rash, should I wait until one of them dies for your damn administration to get the hint already that we need medicine and medics!”

“Ivan Ivanovich…” the mother of the boy that had until then been in the care of Elizaveta, finally gathered the strength to walk up to her colonel. “Please, is it true that we can’t afford to use medication? Me and my husband work in the gardens, if we have to we’ll personally go to work in the factories in the inner ring to replace everything but please don’t spare medicine so my boy can live, _please_!”

“Marina Makarovna, who told you that?!” Ivan exclaimed. “That’s complete nonsense! We won’t make you work for something that you deserve. In no way will we spare resources in helping your family and the rest that might need it.”

Guessing that Gilbert had talked unnecessary idiocies and the poor woman had mistakenly believed them, Ivan threw the doctor a bitter glance.

“And as for you, Gilbert, can you please be a _little_ _bit_ more considerate? We value you as an asset in our community, please act as such.”

“I want all the kids with symptoms similar to these in the hospital right now,” Gilbert said, turning towards Elizaveta as if he had heard nothing of what Ivan had told him and had definitely not paid any attention to the hinted warning. “I immediately want a disinfected and sterile room for all of them, we’re going to put them under surveillance for now. I don’t want us wasting any time at all if it comes to something like this again.”

“Should we call Yao?” Tolys asked, “Maybe this is something he’s seen? They’ve developed interesting means of treatment in China town, ones that are effective…”

Gilbert allowed it, only because there was no room for prejudice when it came to medicine anymore; hell, he thought, if it works, it works. Eastern medicine or not, if it meant stopping a possible outbreak of some unseen disease then it was worth a shot.

They cleaned everything the boy had been in contact with and Gilbert briefed Yao when he came, as quickly as he could have, on the child’s symptoms. And though China town’s administrator had no medical training and had never worked in the field ever, he perfectly understood Gilbert, so much so that the doctor was relieved to finally have the opinion of someone who realized the severity of the situation.

Everyone who had the slightest hint of a rash or irritation was immediately brought to the hospital and put under surveillance and Gilbert made sure that everyone followed the strict hygiene rules. The confusion and even irritation with the new situation became the reason for a few loud conflicts, initiated primarily by the distraught parents of the otherwise visibly healthy children – those seemed to be the only ones that actually showed any symptoms.

“It could be anything and nothing at all,” Yao told Ivan once peace seemed to finally be restored and the panic was stopped. “I certainly can give the doctor ointments and make more for the rash but there’s only so much we can do about the fever, especially if it can rise this high. I give you my word, colonel, whatever help we can give – we will give.”

“I don’t doubt you, Yao…” Ivan mumbled, “But we can’t all become doctors and nurses. I’ll report this to Moscow Major, but…”

It wasn’t as though Ivan wasn’t ready to pick up the phone and demand and demand that the central administration heard them and understood their desperate need, he did. The but that bothered him, however, was the circus Moscow Major and the commanding staff there had forced him into by keeping his men for interrogations following their return from the Star. Ivan wasn’t sure what deserved his attention more – the health of the people he was responsible for or the political mess that was forming right under their noses and had the potential to thrust them into another scandal and war with their neighbouring powers.

“Give me another few days,” he asked of both Gilbert and Yao, “and I do hope we find a way to control the situation here, of course, but if not, I promise to personally go to Moscow Major and ask them for help. I can’t promise for how long we’ll manage to keep a calm contact with them, I’m expecting them to start ignoring our calls soon. So, it’s a few days I ask you for. Not more.”

He asked Tolys to take some time of his already busy schedule to supervise the hospital, only for the time being, before returning to his office. He did, of course, call their central command, but instead of yelling and ordering the dispatcher to give him someone to speak to, he merely asked for his message to be given to whoever thought of himself as responsible enough – he reported the amount of their current supplies as stated in Eduard’s report, their collaboration with China town and the appearance of the odd illness.

“We need an order now,” he asked of the dispatcher, “we’re not sure what the right procedure is, given the situation.”

“Ivan Ivanovich, with all due respect,” the man on the other end of the line responded, “but you are in the position to take the best possible decision. You’re authorized to do what you find best. Given the position of your father…”

Ivan hung up. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to unnecessary commentary on a topic he avoided usually.

Tolys returned much later that afternoon, just when Ivan was beginning to consider going home for good now. He had wanted to stay until he got called back from the central administration with a confirmation that his report had gone through and perhaps with a set of orders to follow but hours had gone by and Moscow Major was silent.

“Is there anything I can bring you?” Tolys asked, polite and considerate as always, after reporting their current situation. Apparently, everything was calm.

“I’m becoming tired,” the colonel sighed. He felt like he had gone through a meat grinder; why was it always such a circus dealing with bureaucracy? “And now we pulled China town into our mess…”

“Has there been word from Moscow Major?”

“None. I’ll go there myself, Tolys, be sure I will…And not because of the doctor alone, whatever they’re hiding…”

No sooner had Ivan finished his sentence did the telephone actually ring; could the central command actually be calling them back? It was almost too good to believe.

“Braginsky on the phone,” Ivan said, bringing the handle to his ear.

Tolys couldn’t hear what the person on the other end of the line was telling Ivan but he could see the colonel’s expression changing by the second as he listened. He could see how slowly the tension left him and while his face had shown nothing but worry and was marred by the strain of his work, it too relaxed and became blank.

“Understood,” Ivan said finally, after having listened carefully. “I’ll make sure to do so, thank you.”

The caller and he exchanged another few generic sentences that helped Tolys none to understand what had just happened and what had caused the quick change in the colonel’s demeanour.

When the conversation was officially finished, Ivan put the handle back down, gentler than he ever had after a call from Moscow Major. His remarkable composure made Tolys wary, who really knew in what kind of mood the conversation had put the colonel in…

“No need to look so tense, Tolys,” Ivan calmed him, as soon as he noticed how intently the lieutenant was staring at him. “They called us back. We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning…”

“ _We_ , sir? Leaving…?”

“Well, _I_ will be leaving for sure, to attend an important meeting as part of the council,” Ivan clarified.

“I don’t understand…Has something happened? Does this have something to do with the mission to Moscow Minor?”

“Apparently somebody has swept their mess under _our_ rug,” said the colonel, though that didn’t quite answer Tolys’ question. “More importantly, Tolys, considering what I just heard, we’ve finally found out where the Fourth Empire went. And can you imagine, all this time it’s been right there where it always was – in Moscow Minor, just under the Star.”


	5. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter officially marks the ending of a metaphorical first part of the story, we're going deep deep into subplots and character relationships are only going to become clearer from here on out! I hope you guys love it, as always, polite critique is a blessing, I'm really hoping that most of you are brave enough to leave a little comment to tell me how you're liking or not liking the story so far! c: I have a great idea for another Hetalia project that I might get around to starting the spring of 2021, until then, I'll try to wrap this up and in between you can expect a lot of the historical Hetalia that you guys loved last time I posted a historical fic so stay tuned for more of that

They made Ivan a colonel during the victory ceremony, a few days after the funeral. Another few weeks after that they made him transfer to the Border Post, back then one of a few other towns along the infamous Red Line. Irina had been happy, she couldn’t have packed any quicker, but she had always been a fan of, what she called, quiet provincial life. For Natalia, who had to stay behind as she was still a cadet in the academy and waiting to graduate, Ivan’s promotion was nothing but a curse.

She had never been separated from her family for more than a few days. Ivan leaving had broken her heart. Natalia would’ve left without a second thought too hadn’t it been for the opinion of the academy’s general staff who had all but forced her to finish her academic training so she would later have the chance of a military career – as if Natalia wanted one. The only reason they even believed she had potential was because they too had been brainwashed to think so, like Ivan had been, by that goddamned man. They had buried him as deep as they could have underground and yet he still found a way to dig his way back out and into her life, like an infection.

Natalia still saw him from time to time – she considered the apparition a bearer of bad luck. Ivan had always scolded her for talking like that about the dead each year during the forgiveness holidays, when he never failed to say a prayer for the dead, a habit Irina had forced onto both of them and one they couldn’t go without. He thought of the man as a father, though he wasn’t one, held dear the memory of him and spoke of him fondly, of course, whenever he was in the particular mood to do so. Natalia couldn’t stand it.

Just before their return from Moscow Minor, she saw him too. The feeling of dread his presence usually filled her with seemed that more prominent due to how close the Star was. It felt almost as if all it would take to touch him would be for Natalia to reach out to the frowning apparition. It carried the scent of ice and winter.

When Ivan told them that evening that he was being called to Moscow Major, the thought of him leaving so soon after she had seen the apparition had made Natalia’s blood boil before chilling it just as quickly. Ivan though, who was neither religious nor superstitious, could do nothing but watch his sister pace around the kitchen and listen to her stutter to find the right words to explain to him how important it was for him to stay.

“It’s a routine meeting, Natasha,” he interrupted her gently when he found the right time to. “I’m not going there to fight monsters or lead war, please, calm down. I hate it when you cry…”

“Then don’t make me!” Natalia screamed. “Why are they calling you in so soon after we returned? Has it something to do with our return? I just want to know!”

“It might…But the way they explained it to me, it’s a meeting to decide what our actions will be following the successful mission to the Star, how we will negotiate with the Ring…”

“Natashka, please, he’s not a child!” Irina scolded her finally. “Let him do his work…”

“You shut up, what do you know about work! Go back to your kitchen!”

Irina quickly shut up, startled by Natalia’s outburst. She knew she hardly ever meant to insult her directly, but more often than not Natalia’s words hurt; they hurt both Irina and Ivan.

“It’s decided already,” Ivan told her, “I have a week to report to Moscow Major.”

“Then I’m coming too!”

“No! There’s really nothing for you to there but go shopping, Natasha. Do you really think they’ll let you in with me to the meeting? The most you’ll get is a talking to and possibly a penalty for talking so much about your stay there after coming back from the Star…”

It was pointless arguing with the steel logic behind Ivan’s words, so, feeling defeated, Natalia turned on her heel and left the kitchen.

She hardly spoke to Ivan the next days, following their argument, and if it weren’t for Irina and Ivan himself constantly trying to uplift her horrible mood, she would have hardly even stood being in the same room as him, whenever Ivan was home, which wasn’t as often as it would be usually.

The day he had to leave, Irina came to see her, asking if Natalia would want to at least go and send him off properly. It wasn’t often that Natalia didn’t get what she wanted so to be reminded that things hadn’t gone her way for once finally made her break down, crying in her sister’s arms.

“I saw him that time, before we left…” she sobbed, “This is bad luck, Ira, bad luck! What if he doesn’t come back?”

“Natashka, please, don’t speak like that,” Irina said, knowing that it was best to listen to Natalia and comfort her whenever she was in such a mood instead of arguing and scolding her. “He’ll be gone for a few days only! God protects our Vanya, you know…”

“There’s no God at that place! Why can’t you understand me, why don’t you fear the General…?!”

“You worry me like this, Natasha…please, don’t cry, please…”

It always broke her heart, seeing her sister so distraught, and though Irina knew the reason, she couldn’t understand her the way Natalia needed to be understood. Spirits is what she saw, ghosts…How could Irina explain to her how irrational her fears were when everything about Natalia was irrational? Not only that but her condition seemed to be getting worse with time.

Ivan left early that afternoon and Natalia watched him go from the window of their living room as it had a perfect view of the gates. He had decided to bring along Eduard and Raivis, leaving Tolys in charge until his return – knowing that he had after all decided to bring company with him irritated Natalia most. There was no other use for both of them, otherwise he would’ve brought Tolys along if it mattered having someone there to help him.

“I guess there’s nothing else left to take,” Ivan said, going through his mental list of things they had to take again to be sure they weren’t forgetting anything. He might have been a bit of a child but he wasn’t ever irresponsible – he liked to be ready whenever he had to leave the Border Post.

“We’re ready to leave when you are, colonel,” Eduard assured him. He wasn’t that eager to go, of course, and neither was Raivis, but when Ivan had asked them to come, his tone had been more demanding than inviting, so that had left them with one option only.

“Have a safe trip, Ivan Ivanovich,” Tolys wished him. “Make sure to call us when you make it to Moscow Major…”

“Of course, of course!” Ivan agreed. “And don’t forget to call every day, Tolys, I’m counting on you to send me regular reports of the situation here. I’m already leaving you alone to deal with this uncertain situation…”

“We will certainly manage by ourself for a few days.”

“Make sure to give Yao my thanks, will you? We already asked so much of him and now he won’t go home either to make sure he helps here…Surely, a one-of-a-kind man.”

“Certainly, colonel.”

A small group of people had gathered to send them off, praying for their safe return and wishing them luck. Ivan thanked all of them accordingly, making sure he showed his high spirits, though he felt anything but lucky and confidant, leaving the Post. Only he – not counting the small bit of information he had given Tolys the day he received the unfortunate call – knew why he was really being called to Moscow Major and the purpose of the council’s gathering.

He looked up and his eyes immediately found his apartment’s window – Ivan saw Natalia, her bitter expression and heavy frown filling him with guilt. His family he never could and would ignore but his duty and his responsibility to the Red Line wasn’t something he would turn his back to either. Natalia’s fears, based on superstition and her own ill mind, weren’t a good enough excuse to neglect his orders.

“We can wait, for you to say goodbye…” Eduard, having seen his colonel’s hesitance, offered, but Ivan shook his head.

“Get in the car, quickly,” he said, feeling his sister’s glare on his back as he got in the passenger’s seat. It felt almost as if he was being cursed, despite all rational thought, so the quicker he got out of her sight perhaps the better Ivan would feel.

They reached the inner ring of Moscow Major before sunset, though by the time they parked the car by the building of the State Social University, which nowadays represented the centre of the Red Line’s predominately militarised political institution, the street lights had just been turned on, filling the city with the glow of a million star-like orbs.

It appeared to be some holiday in the capital, the news of which hadn’t reached its outskirts. The wide streets and boulevards were lined with pavilions and stores that still sold all kinds of things, from clothes and toys to weapons, appliances and electronics, foods both sweet and savoury. None of things could someone find outside of Moscow Major, certainly not in half-deserted places like the Border Post or China town.

The climax of the celebration came just a few minutes later when, under the tact of exciting and royal marching music the year’s new recruitments and graduates of the military academy marched down the street. The sight was so inspiring that the gaggles of kids immediately stopped running and playing to watch while their parents held their breath; a few people were moved to tears, seeing their sons and grandsons, brothers and nephews march.

“What are they celebrating?” Raivis asked, shaken by the display and looking around like a trapped mouse. Their few military holidays were months away. “This is really scary, isn’t it…?”

“It is imposing…” Eduard agreed. The music and the rhythmic steps of the marching graduates and recruits almost made the ground shake under the rows of boots.

“Oh, maybe some holiday of theirs,” Ivan, who had just gotten out of the car and was looking around far less impressed than his companions, dismissed them both, waving off their visible lack of comfort. “You know how it is in the academy, they always find a reason to make their students parade around. Oh, but look at that! They have doughnuts over there…”

He pointed towards a vendor nearby and to their great surprise, walked around the car to give both Raivis and Eduard each a couple of bills.

“Go buy yourselves some,” he advised, refusing to accept back the money, “and…make sure to get me something too, yes?”

“Sure, Ivan Ivanovich…” Eduard promised, unable to stand the colonel’s childishly pleading tone. Raivis was already staring at all the numerous stalls of foods and the many useless things he could buy.

While they looked for a better parking spot for the car, Ivan slowly made his way across the ex-university’s yard – he wasn’t especially overjoyed or excited to be there at all. He had no energy whatsoever to spend hours in the meeting hall with men twice his age who spoke nothing but nonsense and still had the power to command and narrate his every decision. Knowing that most of them had been against him joining the council when it happened wasn’t helpful either.

At the entrance he showed his passport and was let in quickly, the parade uniform perhaps helped some too. The last time Ivan had been called to an official meeting had been last year and the topic had been a boring one – something to do with the yearly budget and the distribution of rations. He wasn’t sure what to expect now, considering the reason he had been called…

At the door for the meeting room Ivan was already familiar with he met the Mr V. who was responsible for their internal affairs. He was a chubby man, much shorter than Ivan, whose hair seemed to have migrated over the years from the top of his head to his upper lip and round face.

“Ah, Braginsky, long time no see!” Mr V. greeted him. “On time, as usual. A lot of bad things going on out there at the border, am I right? You should tell us about that later…”

“I’m surprised you’d like to hear,” Ivan said, “considering your lack of care for our situation lately.”

Mr V.’s face became red with shame quickly and he averted his gaze, laughing off the matter and changing the subject.

He was greeted coldly by some when he entered the meeting room, others were more excited to see him – ex-friends of his father and people who had helped him in the years following his own graduation from the academy. Ivan disliked all of them an equal amount and lately he had been forming grudges towards a few special cases, the ones whose help he had needed most through the supply crisis back at their Border Post and the ones that had ignored him just because they could.

The meeting started officially when the doors to the room were closed and everybody was seated. The council headed a Mr P. – a short but heavy-set man who had worked previously as part of the Red Line’s secret services and even before the Collapse Ivan had heard that he had been part of one or other similar institution. He had been made Marshal of the Red Line during the war with the Ring, something Ivan’s father had had a helpful hand in until his death a few months after.

The council feared Mr P. since he had a presence that, though darkly humorous, was enough to strike fear and uncertainty whenever he wished – something that had to do perhaps with his previous affiliation to the pre-Collapse system. As a cadet Ivan had found him unpleasant and dangerous but now, he allowed himself unexpected confidence when facing Mr P., though he never lost his respect for the man.

Knowing that the Marshal respected Ivan as much a he did him, Ivan sat right across from him, at the other end of the table. Choosing that seat for himself made Ivan look almost as if he was being put on trial and the rest of the council, who had all gathered close to the Marshal, were there to prosecute him.

“I’m thankful that we all managed to come and have this meeting on such a short notice,” the Marshal began. “I’m sure we all know what the reason for us to gather is and, unfortunately, it’s not a problem we can overlook. We’re here to discuss a topic that has been left a question mark in the history books – that is the Fourth Empire and what happened after our short war with them. Well, we might just be a step closer to finding the answer to that question. Considering the information we received after the second official mission to the Star it is safe to say that the Empire was forcefully eradicated, not by nature’s hand or the Star’s force but by man’s hand. And given the lack of other possible option, it is also safe to presume that that hand belonged to none other than the Ring. After years of peace, gentlemen, I fear that we have enough evidence to believe that our neighbouring force has been making direct advances towards our source of life and power and our symbol of peace and prosperity – the Star itself.”

The first thing Tolys did that morning was check on the hospital and Gilbert. In the past week they had managed to fill an entire ward of patients, which was a worrying thing if you excluded the fact that most of them had only flue symptoms, a few of them had high fever and the patients with severe breathing problems were so far only five.

After getting scolded by Gilbert for not following the hygiene rules, twice, Tolys went to grab a quick breakfast. In the cafeteria he saw Natalia but as soon as she noticed him waiting in line for food and tea, she left. There went his chance of starting a conversation now that Ivan was gone.

There was no getting rid of Feliks though so instead of a pleasant breakfast with Natalia, Tolys was stuck listening to his friend’s ceaseless chatter for the next hour and a half until it was time to go. The cafeteria was less crowded than usual – after word had gotten out about the unpleasant illness, people preferred to isolate themselves as much as possible, something Gilbert had been advising the whole week.

It was unnaturally calm in the administrative building as well when Tolys went to the office. They hadn’t had too much staff to begin with so now that Ivan was gone with both Eduard and Raivis, the building felt empty.

“There have been no calls since yesterday evening,” Aleksander, who had come that morning to help with the paperwork, reported. “Eduard called to say that they had gotten there safely.”

Tolys wondered if Ivan would call too, or maybe he had already called Irina to tell her not to worry – the only other phone in the Border Post was in his apartment since he couldn’t spend twenty-four hours a day in his office.

Surely enough, the colonel called him around lunchtime. Tolys could tell he hadn’t slept much and that whatever they had discussed yesterday on their meeting had put him in a very bad mood.

“What a circus,” Ivan complained, describing the waste of time most of the meeting had been and the idiotic things some of the commanding staff had said during. “You should’ve been there, Tolys, to see it for yourself, words can’t even describe it!”

“Was the mission to Moscow Minor the only point of the meeting?” Tolys asked carefully, not sure how much of the information Ivan could discuss with him freely over the phone.

“Well…It went a little like this.”

Immediately after the Marshal had finished, the room began to buzz with chatter. Most of the comments made were meant to be hushed but with so many people talking to each other, the Marshal was forced to silence them and remind that it was proper to speak one after the other after being given the word.

“We can’t be making such claims,” Mr Y., who represented their educational board, exclaimed. “We have a peace treaty with the Ring. If we start blaming them for something as serious as movement inside Moscow Minor and the Star, especially now that we can’t be certain what political direction their new council will take, this might turn into another armed conflict!”

“So, while they’re moving into what we declared a dangerous zone right next to us and claiming the Star their own we should just do nothing?” Mr K., who was actually a part of their democratic opposition, argued. He usually defended the Ring on meetings and liked to propose unity with them but this time he seemed to be patriotically orientated – it would be in no one’s interest to have the Ring claim the Star for themselves, in such a situation everyone became a crusader.

“It was said in our peace treaty with them,” he continued, “that the highly radioactive and dangerous zone between the inner circle of Moscow Major and the outer bow of the Ring will not be touched by either side and will be put out of any territorial negotiations! If the Ring is secretly active in the named zone, then that is a clear neglect of our treaty.”

“According to our recent investigation,” said the Mr G., the Marshal’s second in command and minister of defence and external affairs, “the possible activity in the already mentioned zone partaken by the Ring might not even be recent. We have evidence that it might have been going on for the past few years and if we dare to speculate, considering the mass graves found in Moscow Minor, they might have had a hand in exterminating the Fourth Empire.”

“Did we send a squad to follow-up on the information the last mission brought back?”

“We did, numerous times in the days following the return of the second official mission there. Not all returned, communication with the rest is impossible.”

“Then how come the last three that formed the second mission returned?! Are you calling it an accident? You mean to tell us that they returned because they somehow managed to avoid the Ring’s forces, if such even are stationed in Moscow Minor?”

“We can’t know for sure what lead to that group’s safe return but we have a theory,” the Marshal said before finally looking right at Ivan, addressing him personally. “Either one or all of the participants in the second mission to the Star were affiliates of the Ring or were recruited as their agents during their stay in Moscow Minor. Or, what we believe to be the more likely reason, is the identity of the participants themselves. All three of them were volunteers from colonel Braginsky’s post, number 141300. In fact, leader of the mission was appointed first lieutenant Arlovskaya, a relative of the colonel. We are all aware of the colonel’s family and their relation to the Star.”

“I’m afraid you’re overreacting, Marshal,” Ivan said, hoping to get that silly idea out of everyone’s mind before they started believing it. Neither he nor his family had any relation whatsoever to the Star itself, only to a marginal part of its power, but so did every person living along the Red Line. He knew of the rumours that the general staff liked spreading about his father and them but neither Ivan nor his sisters were superstitious enough to really believe them – well, that was a lie, Natalia was deep into spiritualism and Irina was deeply religious herself, but nobody had to know that.

“My family has never had any connection to the Star,” he continued. “That is, we are all protected by its power but just as much as any other citizen of our Red Line. I’m aware of what you and the entirety of our commanding staff think…And I must disappoint you, we aren’t favoured by the Star in any way. The return of the team of three I sent you to take part in the mission I would call a very lucky accident.”

Some of them looked almost ashamed to have thought the Marshal told the truth about Ivan in particular but they were all still not convinced that there wasn’t some force watching over him and his sisters. There was a reason that following the General’s death they had made Ivan colonel and had made him post administrator – one that had to do not only with his abilities and talents but also with the heritage the General had left.

“No matter that,” the Marshal continued, “if the Ring does in fact have forces in Moscow Minor, than there is no excuse not to be careful.”

“We ought to call full militarisation to our inner border,” advised Mr G. “Recruiting squads to survey Moscow Minor now that we know the radiation levels are low enough to allow access to the are over a long period of time should also be considered.”

“But our squads don’t return!”

“What’s the point of sending people there if we aren’t sure what the actual enemy is?”

“What if we give the Ring the wrong impression…Can we just stop and consider the possibility that it might not be what it seems and that they have no hand in any of this…”

“Sending a larger number of men might work better than sending out squads of three!”

The Marshal was forced to put an end to the sudden ruckus again with a warning before giving his own opinion.

“We will recruit more guards along the inner border and establish a perimeter outside of it. If the threat is to come from Moscow Minor, then we can’t wait until it comes to knock on our front door before neutralising it. We will begin the recruitment of volunteers to form another squad to the Star too, starting tomorrow.”

He looked at Ivan again, “Colonel, in the case of war and national crisis, we will need the help of your men as well. Do make sure they are prepared and let them know that we need volunteers. As for the Ring, we can’t let them do as they please, only because they’ve had a change of staff recently. I think that it is more than acceptable to negotiate with them or at least propose a meeting with their government to decide the course of our political relationship.”

“A wonderful idea, Marshal,” Mr Y. voiced the opinion of the majority. “It is about time we do decide what the change of staff in the Ring’s government will mean for us. I mean, they have heads on their shoulders to decide what they want to do, but if their decisions pose a threat to us, then…”

“We will discuss this with the Ring tomorrow morning. If they accept the proposition, we will decide who will participate in the negotiations.”

“So, in short,” Ivan said, “be prepared for everything. It’s complete nonsense, of course, that Natasha returned because the Star allowed her and the boys to, that completely contradicts the theory that the Ring has Moscow Minor under surveillance. You understand why I’m so irritated, right, Tolys!”

“I understand,” the lieutenant agreed, unable to comprehend all the information Ivan had just told him.

“I have a job for you, please, hold a meeting with our staff and explain the situation to them…If, by any chance, any of them agree to take part in a future expedition to the Star, tell me immediately."

“Whatever you order, Ivan Ivanovich, sir…But does this mean that it’s official then? We’re preparing for a possible war with the Ring?”

“Don’t put it like that!” Ivan exclaimed. “No, no, no war…Just a group training in the case it happens. You see, we still have no word from the Ring. The threat might be coming from Moscow Minor itself. Until we manage to form another expedition to the Star that will successfully return with more information…we can’t be sure of anything currently.”

Though that’s what Ivan said, Tolys was sure both realised that if the Ring’s government was advancing into Moscow Minor, the Red Line would rather begin a war of self-destruction than let them have the Star. Ivan had warned him already – be prepared for the worse possible outcome.

Following the colonel’s orders, Tolys called a meeting with their administration staff that same evening after dinner. He had asked, as per usual, for Feliks, Tomas and Hedvika, Vlad and Aleksander to stay behind, and this time he had invited Yao too, as an administrator of China town, Gilbert and Elizaveta. Natalia was, needless to say also there, as the second highest ranking officer. Considering how many of them there were, Tolys had decided to have the discussion in the cafeteria, so they wouldn’t waste time.

He told them everything Ivan had said about his meeting with the council and of everything they thought they knew about Moscow Minor and the Star and the Ring’s involvement in the destruction of the Fourth Empire. As he had expected, both the doctor and Elizaveta became visibly worried, a reaction not too different from the one they had when they found the dead body with the Empire’s emblem on its arm floating down their river.

“So, as the colonel said,” Tolys ended his report, “we should be ready for everything from now on. We’ll know for sure by tomorrow what the council has decided and whether any of us will have to report to Moscow Major. Until then…the colonel wants me to ask you, if any of you would like to volunteer. I know it’s a lot to ask for, considering the peaceful years…But it might happen eventually and the colonel…”

“Don’t overexplain yourself,” Natalia interrupted him. “You sound like your apologizing, what for? If Ivan has made you tell us this, then he isn’t asking, he’s giving us an order to report to Moscow Major. It might be voluntarily now but it won’t be for long, so decide for yourselves now.”

“Well, no, I’m not asking all of you to come,” Tolys argued. “Somebody will have to stay, to take care of the town and the administration here. Yao, I think, should also return to China town, it’s been too long already and…”

“Nonsense!” Yao exclaimed, “You have very little trust in my subordinates, lieutenant! If it is Ivan asking…then there’s nothing to be done. It’s been too long without a war anyway. So, count me in then. I would’ve let you take the kids but…”

“No, absolutely not, don’t apologize. I wouldn’t make you come either, I wouldn’t make any of you come…”

“Does that mean you’re going already, lieutenant?” Feliks asked him, his tone and expression nothing but smug. He obviously liked it whenever Tolys took charge, but this time he kind of hoped his way of phrasing didn’t mean what he thought it did.

“It’s not decided that any of will be going…”

“When Ivan calls,” Natalia said, “tell him I’ll report. I was already there, I can go again. Obviously, they’re understaffed in Moscow Major and their men aren’t as capable.”

“I _meant_ ,” Tolys quickly continued, “that it’s not sure yet if _any_ of us will have to report. But if it becomes official, then yes. The higher-ranking officers should always be the first to report.”

“Then I might volunteer too,” Feliks decided, without much enthusiasm. “Actually, make it official...”

“Maybe I should too, then…” Tomas thought aloud, though out of all of them he had one good reason to stay – he would be leaving behind a legal wife, though by the looks of it, when he side-eyed Hedvika, she wouldn’t be missing him much. “Should I go?” he asked her, “Or do you want me to stay?”

“Do I want you to stay?” She frowned, unimpressed by his attempt to joke. “Go wherever you want! Volunteer for all I care.”

“And what are you going to do then?”

“What am I going to do…I might go with you.”

“You might? You’d run away with me to the front? You’re so romantic, thank you…”

“Oh, shut up, you and your nonsense…!”

“So, does this mean that I can count on all of you?” Tolys asked, looking around the table until his eyes settled on Gilbert. The tension hadn’t left him and Tolys wasn’t sure what he was thinking about but considering the topic, he had an idea what it could be. There wasn’t a way that Gilbert didn’t know more than he said he did, especially not now that they were beginning to reexplore Moscow Minor.

“Why are you looking at me?” Gilbert asked, feeling the lieutenant staring, as if he was waiting to hear him say he’d go to war in support of the Red Line, like the rest of its brainwashed entirety. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have a whole hospital to take care of here. Who do you want me to leave the patients to, if Yao is leaving too? The nurses? Or should I tell the parents to treat their kids whichever way they find best?!”

“I haven’t said anything,” Tolys said. “I just wanted you to know that so far, there’s no reason for a conflict with the Ring. But there’s enough reason to start the investigation about the Empire’s disappearance anew and in that case, you might get called to Moscow Major for interrogation.”

“As if, there are enough Empire refugees to ask about it there! I will not report!”

“Do they have the right to take us into custody?” Elizaveta worriedly asked, her hand squeezing Gilbert’s under the table to calm him and herself. “In the case of an investigation…”

“It isn’t decided…”

“We don’t know anything, so don’t even think about it!” Gilbert repeated. “I will not volunteer and until someone from Moscow Major comes to take us under gunpoint, we will not be going anywhere.”

“You have the right to say so, nobody’s making you,” Tolys assured him. “I’m just informing you, that in the case of a serious investigation, you might be called in to report, whether you want to or not.”

As if Gilbert would, they had enough people to interrogate back in Moscow Major. Though the possibility of there being a follow-up to their investigation from years ago now that they could enter Moscow Minor was something to worry about. He could tell Erzsebet was just as afraid of it by the way she squeezed his hand under the table, despite still being mad at him and having given him the silent treatment for days now.

The two went home in silence once Tolys ended the meeting. The boys were already in their beds, judging by the lack of light and sound in the apartment – it had gotten rather late.

“You have nothing to do with it, Gilbert,” Erzsebet told him, her voice hushed, once the two sat down in the kitchen. “Whatever they do, they won’t get to you or us, it’s impossible. They have no way of prosecuting all of the survivors either, that would be nonsense!”

“Forget about that,” he shook his head, “I’m more worried about them calling me to help investigate. I’m worried that Ivan will remind them all about us and they’ll make me go either way…”

“They won’t, you’re our only doctor here…”

“Do you think they care? Who knows how panicked they all are…Maybe I should go? What do you think? To explain…”

Erszebet frowned, “Explain what…? Gilbert, right now they think that the enemy is the Ring, if you tell them everything, they’ll think that what the Ring did was justified, did you forget!”

Gilbert hadn’t forgotten, of course, and it wasn’t something he hadn’t thought about numerous times. He knew that the Red Line would find out eventually, Moscow Minor couldn’t remain a hazardous zone forever, but he had counted that the Ring at least would’ve taken care of its mess. Actually, in the case of war, who could promise the Red Line that the Ring wouldn’t throw the blame on them? Where could a possible investigation lead after so long?

“Let them start a war…” Gilbert said, tiredly. “They’re already looking for a reason to, don’t you see? Moscow Minor couldn’t stay a no-man zone forever.”

“I don’t want you to get in trouble…”

“Forget about it.”

They blew out the candle Erzsebet had lit when they had gotten home, checked on the boys, and went to bed. Though they slept with their backs to one another, Gilbert could tell Erzsebet wanted to roll around, face him, move closer to him.

She would never know how desperately Gilbert wanted to do the same.

After deciding that school should be cancelled, considering the percentage of kids that were ill, the boys had to stay home. That didn’t mean that they were less busy though – Erzsebet would home-school them after lunch so they wouldn’t fall too far behind and every morning they had to help do chores, whether it be counting vegetables or picking them, cleaning the animal pens or bring food from the cafeteria to the elderly who couldn’t manage to get there on their own.

It was Erzsebet who wanted them to be part of the social work in the Border Post – it was her belief that the more they were engaged in the community, the better they would be accepted, and it was true. Gilbert though thought that it didn’t matter if the community accepted you or not, as long as you did for it something that nobody else could, it would have to tolerate you and, like it or not, accept you. That didn’t mean he didn’t expect the boys to help around, hard work did teach responsibility.

So that’s how, that morning while the two plucked weeds from the flower garden, Feliciano managed to overhear the warrant mister Feliks discussing yesterday’s meeting with sergeant mister Tomas while they were supposed to be guarding the gate.

“Don’t think about it, why are you so worried?” the warrant spoke, gesturing wildly, “Think about it, would they need that many people for an investigation? It’s not like they’re going to break down the border and storm into Moscow Minor! Tolys told you too, they’re just investigating the Empire again. If anything, they’ll want us to help do their dirty work…”

“I don’t know, man,” the sergeant kept worrying. “This Empire business has been going on for years, you’d think they forgot about it…It looks more like an excuse to move the border another few kilometers closer to the Ring.”

“Well, that’s their business. They’ve been wanting to bring the Star into Moscow Major’s borders for years now…Why are you so surprised?”

“Yeah, but the Ring…”

“Well, the problem here is just the Square, really, if the Ring can make a compromise…”

“Yeah, right, as if! Though this Empire thing really is shady, it worries me, dude…The whole Moscow Minor is bad luck, you know? I don’t want to go there at all, if I have to be honest.”

“Tell me about it, who knows what those Nazis were up to there in the first place. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what will happen after we have the talk with the Ring, right?”

“Would you go?” Tomas asked after a pause.

“Well…If Tolys goes, yeah,” the warrant said, crossing his arms. “He’ll try to show off in front of that Natalia, wait and see, and he’ll get himself killed. I guess I’ll have to babysit him if he ends up going. But enough about this stuff! Say, what’s up with you and Jadzia, yesterday you…”

They continued the conversation in a direction that, judging by sergeant mister Tomas’s expression, was pretty embarrassing for him and Feliciano lost interest. What he had already heard was enough to occupy his young little head with worrying thoughts.

He looked back at Ludwig who was diligently plucking the useless growth around the tufts of flowers before smoothing out the soil around them. He looked too focused on his work to have heard anything.

“Ludwig…When are we going to back home?” Feliciano asked, quietly, as if he were ashamed that he was even asking.

“If you help me, we might go home quicker, Feli,” Ludwig said, frowning when he realised that Feliciano was, _again_ , making him do all the work.

“I mean to the station? When are we going to go back _there_ …”

Ludwig looked up at him, wide-eyed, “Why would we go back there…? There’s no station there anymore. You know that…”

“Because I heard the warrant and the sergeant over there talking about going…”

“They’re not going there to sightsee, Feli.”

“But can’t we go too...? Maybe if we ask them really nicely they’ll take us to see…”

“Absolutely not!” Ludwig exclaimed. “Don’t even think about it, Feliciano, I already got in enough trouble with Gilbert because of you last time.”

Whatever Feli had wanted to say, Ludwig’s tone made him reconsider and instead he looked down at his feet while Ludwig continued, a little more angrily, with his work. Feliciano wasn’t stupid, both of them had learned the moment it happened that returning back underground to their station wouldn’t happen ever again. But Feliciano didn’t miss the station itself, not did he miss living with the strict rules of the Fourth Empire – it was something else he wanted, something he wouldn’t get back in a million years, no matter how good he was.

“I just wanted to know if they’re still there…” he mumbled, hoping Ludwig wouldn’t be mad at him again; he didn’t like it when he was.

“Feli…” Ludwig began, wondering if there was even anything new he could tell Feliciano, until a familiar voice interrupted him.

“Boys! There you are.”

Erszebet stood a few feet away from them, outside of the garden, waving them over with a wide smile. In her hand she held a plastic bag full of boxes with food for lunch.

“You can continue that tomorrow, come home for lunch now,” she said and the boys listened, dusting off their dirty hands and knees while they walked towards her. “You two seem a bit gloomy…Is everything alright? Feliciano?”

He shrugged his shoulders, having nothing to say for once. He only shook his head when Erzsebet asked if he was feeling sick or unwell, which calmed her enough, though Erzsebet would rather have him running around and laughing.

In the end, she gave both boys a kiss on cheek, made sure to tell them how proud she was that they helped in town, before the three of them went home for lunch.

He had ordered that they serve his lunch in his room, not wanting to be caught up in any web those political invalids might be weaving, but instead of getting his portion of grilled meat and vegetables, Ivan was told to report to the Marshal’s office – apparently the man had something to discuss with him in private.

He hadn’t even shut the door all the way when the Marshal threw down on his desk a rather heavy paper folder.

“The Ring denies,” were the words he greeted him with and Ivan barely had the chance to be surprised before the Marshal elaborated, “Today we contacted them and directly inquired if by any chance the movement along our border and the Star was theirs – they denied responsibility, said they’d look into the matter themselves too, as it was a cause for concern on their end as well. What do you think?”

“Didn’t they ask if by any chance we weren’t doing something out of order? What a surprise…”

Ivan crossed the office, the walls of which were decorated accordingly in flags, insignias and symbols of the Red Line, to sit down across from the Marshal on an armchair that had most definitely seen better days.

“This game of blaming, if it continues, can turn dangerous really quickly, Braginsky,” the Marshal warned. “We have no time or resources to mask ourselves and act like mice under the noses of the Ring. Especially not in Moscow Minor, our rightful territory.”

“Well, we were certain that when the time came to retake it that wouldn’t happen with the Ring’s consent though,” Ivan reminded. “They’d win just as much as we would if they took Moscow Minor, so…”

“Is that why, you think, they might have eradicated the Empire?”

“Oh, I have no idea what happened to the Empire! All this time we did think they just vanished after all.”

“If they had been to war with the Ring and had lost, would we have learned then?”

Ivan blinked, “Naturally, we do share a border. Our connection with the Empire in regards to their tunnels and the metro might have been cut in the very beginning of our establishing but nevertheless…I wouldn’t be surprised if their loss was so quick and devastating that we might have mistaken the commotion for something else though.”

“Never mind the theories now,” said the Marshal, “we can’t leave things as they are. At the meeting today I will propose the need for immediate negotiations and I want you, Braginsky, to go to the Ring and re-establish our connection with their new government. Apparently, we have forgotten to show them that we still exist and that the Star still serves _us_.”

“Me, Marshal?” Ivan asked, neither excited nor shocked by the responsibility that was being handed to him so casually. “I’m no diplomat, sir. I’m not sure how well I’ll serve you in negotiating with the Ring.”

“Their government already knows you, _well_. You’ve been part of our delegations before and…” his voice grew rather hushed, “Let’s not fool ourselves any longer, they know of your abilities. If anyone can humble them now, that’s you, Ivan.”

The colonel smiled; he couldn’t help it. The trust the Marshal had in him was remarkable but that wasn’t the only reason he’d send him to negotiate – sure, Ivan had a good relationship with the possibly former Sir and prime Minister of the Ring, but by sending him they’d remind their neighbours that they possessed power far greater than theirs. All it would take would be Ivan’s presence and a demonstration, but Ivan wasn’t a circus animal though.

“Might you be afraid, Marshal?” He asked, “I have no more a connection to the Star as any other man that has been sworn into servitude to it has. Like I said yesterday, I’m not superstitious.”

“Don’t act coy with me, you’re still not grown up enough to,” the Marshal warned. “Nobody’s talking about superstition but facts. And the fact is that we buried an empty coffin where your father the General should be resting now. Because, as we both know, he became a part of the Star, didn’t he? And he’s returned…to either guard or curse you.”

“I consider the presence of the General in whichever form he has now, aside from physical, a blessing,” Ivan admitted. “If you were to ask my sister, of course, she’d tell you differently. Is it me or the General that you plan to scare the Ring with, Marshal?”

The man spoke after a long pause in which he studied Ivan and his expression, trying to guess whether he was using his own tricks on him or if he was merely joking, “It’s both of you and only for the fact that you have sworn to defend the Red Line and the General is now nothing but a demon, brought back by the force of the Star.”

“I’d hate to use that word,” Ivan laughed. “I’ll go to the Ring, of course, if my presence there will help the situation.”

“I have another thing to ask of you – we will need recruits, capable ones, to form a…so to say, _third_ official mission to the Star. Out of all our three-men squads dispatched there, two returned, who claim that the most dangerous thing in Moscow Minor now is the animals. They all proved right the statement of your men that in the tunnels that the Empire occupied formerly there are piles of corpses bared by a natural collapse of the tunnels.”

“Well, sir, you did dispatch your most capable men in the posts along the outer borders after the war with the Ring to defend them, no wonder you have nobody left here to use as stalkers in Moscow Minor! If it’s necessary though…I will make a squad of very capable men for you. If it means serving the Red Line, I’m sure all of them will report to you in a matter of hours.”

“I only need a handful, to form a squad.”

“You can count on us.”

“The General would’ve been proud of you,” the Marshal said, just as Ivan was standing up to leave. “He too risked everything for the Red Line and in defence of the Star.”

“You’re mistaking, Marshal,” Ivan denied, smiling still. “You see, the General didn’t have it in him to feel pride. I’d have to do more than allow you to command my staff for him to even acknowledge me. Then again, I can’t be sure if he would act the same if he were my actual father…After all, only my older sister is related to him by blood, and she’s a niece of his!”

There was a reason Ivan hated speaking of his family, especially with those who thought they knew them – it was that most of the time, they had no idea what they were saying, confidant that they had known the only part of the General there was to know. Ivan knew a second part, however, while Natalia and Irina knew a third and a fourth one. In other words, there was far more to the person the General had been and just as much to whatever he had become.

The conversation, though Ivan hadn’t wanted to show the Marshal, had angered him more than it should have and left him pressed so tightly against the political wall that he wished he would just disintegrate into it already. Returning to the Ring again, after nearly two years, was something he hated to think about but risking his own men on behalf of the soldiers already in Moscow Major was just outrageous.

Still, Ivan was in no position to refuse a direct order. He’d have to cope and most importantly, other people would have to cope with the situation themselves.

Ivan already had an idea who would be the first person he’d like to send to Moscow Minor.

“It’s official,” they overheard Gilbert say, speaking in a hushed and bitter tone, “I heard from the lieutenant today. Apparently, Ivan called after another conversation with the commanding staff. They’ll investigate.”

“Are they going to leave?” Erzsebet asked, just as quietly, and Gilbert had perhaps nodded or given another confirming gesture because next, she asked, “When then? Who?”

“It’s not decided yet. We’re waiting for commands now.”

“ _We_? Are they going to…?”

“We’re waiting,” Gilbert repeated, sternly.

Feliciano was restless, had been the whole day. Not as though he was in a foul mood, that was something he was incapable of being, but his mind was obviously somewhere else entirely, somewhere that made his little smile go upside down.

Ludwig knew where that somewhere was – the Fourth Empire, the tunnels, their station. He could hear Feliciano rolling around in bed just as well as he could hear his brother trying to speak as quietly as he could in the kitchen; it wasn’t his fault he was naturally loud and the walls thin. It wasn’t like they were living in tents anymore, they had floors and doors that creaked and they had actual beds. There was no water constantly leaking and dripping down from pipes so high up that they disappeared in the darkness overhead, there were no rats and bugs as big as your palm running around and no constant light – light from candles, emergency lights, white lights that stung their eyes.

He wasn’t so sure anymore where they had felt more at home or where he should think of as a home.

“Ludwig?” Feliciano finally called out to him, quiet and uncertain. “Are you sleeping?”

“Not anymore…” Ludwig said, turning around so he could face his friend's roundish face; he looked like a tomato.

“What are they talking about?”

“I don’t know. But it’s not something scary, I bet. Don’t worry about it.”

That did little to really comfort Feliciano, Ludwig could see it in the way he still frowned – he knew Feliciano rarely really thought about things, even when the worst happened to them it seemed that he had just…not been there, or pretended not to have been there. To see him visibly tortured by it hurt Ludwig just as much.

“What are you thinking about now?” He asked, sounding almost whiny, a thing Gilbert would’ve scolded him for. “Stop, alright…There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Do you think they’re alive?” Feli asked him and in even in the dark it was obvious he had teared up.

No, of course, he didn’t think so, but how could Ludwig tell him that, now that Feliciano was crying. He didn’t think they were alive, not anymore, because Ludwig had grown up and he had accepted that not everything they wanted they could have.

“I don’t know,” he said finally, unsure what else there was to say. The last thing Ludwig wanted to do was lie, though he felt that Feliciano was merely asking him to cease a struggle that he had been having with himself for a very long time now, one he could barely even comprehend on his own.

“I really don’t know, Feli, I’m sorry…”

When Feliciano began to cry it was all it took for Ludwig to finally get out of bed and as awkward as he was to go and hug him. Feliciano wouldn’t ever grow up if they kept treating him like a baby, he thought, but Ludwig wasn’t immune to feeling sad. He couldn’t even imagine being as alone, the least he could do was offer whatever comfort he could. He owed Feliciano at least that.

“I miss them,” his friend cried, quietly, so Gilbert and Erzsebet wouldn’t hear. “Please, let’s just ask them to take us to Moscow Minor, maybe they’re there…”

“They’re not, Feli,” Ludwig said, squeezing his friend tightly, “I don’t think there’s anything there to find anymore.”

“Then I’m going to run away! They can’t keep me here…!”

“Don’t be silly, where are you going to go…?”

“Back to the Empire,” Feliciano hiccupped, “I’m going back to my brother and mister Roderick!”

“Feliciano, shut up!” Ludwig exclaimed, scolding himself for having been loud when he had wanted to make Feli be quieter. “Just shut up…”

He couldn’t even imagine what it could feel to be alone, but when he tried, Ludwig couldn’t help but start crying too.

It was a miracle neither Gilbert nor Erzsebet came in as soon as they heard them; the walls were thin, not as thin as those of a tent, but thin enough. Ludwig was grateful that they hadn’t come in.

“Lieutenant, Laurinaitis!” Aleksander screamed from the window of the administrative building, facing the school and cafeteria, stopping to think for a moment if he had said the lieutenant’s surname properly; it was something that made him anxious every time he had to call Tolys by surname. “There’s a call for you, it’s urgent! It’s from Moscow Major.”

Fortunately, Tolys was just walking out of the cafeteria with a plastic tray with lunch and coffee. He crossed the street as quickly as he possibly could with that in his hands and once in the office, he dropped it off at Aleksander’s desk and ran into the office that was usually Ivan’s private one, where the phone was.

“First lieutenant Laurinaitis on the phone, sir,” Tolys said once he picked up the handle, a bit out of breath.

“Ah, there you are!” He heard Ivan exclaim from the other end of the line; he sounded as if he were in a hurry, “Tolys, quick, I need your help with something very important!”

The colonel’s errand took him more willpower and patience than anything, that was the only reason why Tolys decided to procrastinate until it was almost dinner time before going to the hospital. His conversation with Gilbert was quick and mostly one-sided, which was perhaps for the better.

He went back to the office to finish the few reports he had on his hands still after that, finishing his work for the day by preparing a chart for the distribution of rations for the week. It had gotten relatively late by the time he locked the doors and prepared to go home, so it was a surprise when, as he walked out of the building, Tolys saw Natalia waiting for him on the sidewalk.

“You didn’t show up to the cafeteria for dinner,” she scolded him, as if him being there would’ve made a difference for her. “I waited for you. My sister wanted to invite you to tea this evening.”

“Oh,” Tolys couldn’t hide his surprise, “is there an occasion? Is there something to celebrate, or…?”

“Are you coming over or not?” Natalia stomped her foot impatiently. “There’s no occasion at all, you’re just invited home, for tea. Idiot…”

It had been days since Natalia had come to him personally and though it was Irina inviting him over, Tolys believed that if Natalia had been completely against it, she wouldn’t have gone there to wait for him. It was those little things in the way she treated him that made Tolys always go back for more.

Irina had liked him ever since he began to work with Ivan, trusted that whenever Ivan wasn’t there to help with whatever it was she needed help with, Tolys would be. Out of their whole family, Tolys considered Irina the most normal one, though her naivety and kindness in times where most virtues were frowned upon as weaknesses to the individual made her stand out negatively.

Irina was excited to see him when they made it to their modest apartment as if they hadn’t seen each other just earlier that day. She heated up a can of meat with sauce for him when Tolys told her he hadn’t eaten and went on to talk excitedly of everything that had been going on recently in the Post, the things she had taught the kids Yao had brought with himself and the newest rumours and stories that concerned the civilians.

Natalia was silent throughout their conversation, at first sitting with them on the table before standing up and grabbing Tolys’ empty plate to wash. There was hardly anything about the mundane life that excited Irina that Natalia enjoyed discussing or even cared enough to hear about.

“Ivan called home yesterday,” Irina said, once the three were seated in the living room and tea was served. “He didn’t sound in a good mood, though, so I couldn’t ask him how things are and when he’ll be heading back home…Has he told you anything, Tolys? We’re worried, you see…”

“Would you let Ivan do his work?!” Natalia scolded her rudely. “Ivan this, Ivan that, is this why you invited him here? To ask him?”

“Don’t be like that, Natashka, it’s normal to be concerned…” Irina tried to calm her.

“If Ivan had wanted to tell you anything, he would have! Stop pushing your nose everywhere.”

“You’re such a _tyrant_ , Natasha!” Irina cried, “Whoever taught you to be such a…such a…”

“Keep it to yourself, you crybaby.”

“And I’m sitting here, wishing you’d find somebody to settle down with…” Irina complained bitterly, lips moving over the edge of her cup. “Who’d be foolish enough to want you, oh, God, why can’t you knock some sense into this girl…”

Tolys drank his tea quietly, fearing that either of them would try to drag him into the conversation he found uncomfortable to even listen to, let alone take part in. Obviously, Irina had begun to feel lonely with just Natalia’s hostility around and apparently Natalia was still bitter that Ivan had left so quickly after her own return so the girls had spent the last few days alone in tension.

No wonder that Irina had wanted someone else's company.

“Never mind, though,” Irina sighed, looking back at Tolys and trying to smile, “so, I heard that in Krasiki they’ve started making a newspaper, is that right?”

They spoke of minor things until Tolys politely excused himself and, surprisingly, it was Natalia who waved Irina off and accompanied him to the door instead. She waited quietly for him to put on his shoes and jacket and she even opened the door for him to walk out – instead of closing it right after though Natalia walked out after him, as she was in her slippers, before shutting the door quietly.

What surprised him more wasn’t that she had walked out almost barefoot but that she, caring little for the fact that they were out on the platform between the floors and certainly had neighbours in the other apartments, pulled him towards herself, wrapping her arms around him so Tolys would have nowhere to go and no way to push her away before kissing him.

“I want you,” Natalia said and judging by her tone alone, Tolys thought that maybe he didn’t have a say on the matter.

“Here? _Now_?”

“I don’t see you objecting,” Natalia frowned, manhandling Tolys until he was pressed against her and she had the wall behind her to support both of their weights.

Of course, he couldn’t deny her – it would mean denying himself. He let her unbutton his jeans and undo the belt, her fingers moving without hesitance and without the intent to tease. Tolys let her, letting his own hands explore the warm skin under her shirt, the soft wool hiking up to expose her stomach and ribs to the cold.

Kicking off her slippers, Natalia pulled down her jeans and underwear just enough before letting Tolys raise her off the floor so she could wrap her legs around his middle comfortably; she barely weighed more than a child so holding her up when she was most vulnerable had become a great pleasure whenever she allowed him to.

His lips are on her throat when he enters her and Tolys feels her body tighten against his, her hands becoming tight fists as Natalia holds onto him desperately. Her head falls back against the wall and he notices in the way her brows furrow that she feels a moment of discomfort before her lips fall open; a quiet gasp escapes her before she sighs heavily.

“Ivan…”

Tolys kisses her all the same, no matter what name’s on her lips, though it hurts in a lot of different ways – if he let it get to his head too much, a lot of occasions would’ve been ruined, come to think of it.

Instead, Tolys can’t help but be curious – would Natalia ever say another name but the one that’s forbidden to her or, what’s more puzzling, did she really feel such intense pleasure imagining her own brother doing something like this to her or was it just a fantasy she dared enact with Tolys just because she knew he wouldn’t ever dare say anything?

There were a lot of things that made Natalia unlovable, strange even, so what pulled Tolys towards her and made her want her was a mystery for sure. Most of all he liked to fool himself that maybe Natalia was different around him, towards him, but that was all utopia.

She came before him, like he always made sure happened, but by the impatient way Natalia would grab onto him or tighten her thighs around Tolys’ waist he knew his hesitance and lack of initiative had been felt. She didn’t thank him like she had last time either, merely made sure there weren’t any stains on her clothes before pulling up her jeans and stepping into her slippers after catching her breath.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Natalia said, casually and unceremoniously, as if she had fucked him and not the other way around. Maybe she did have a point.

“Do you think we have a future together?” Tolys asked her, surprising even himself. It was a horrible time for such a question but considering all they had done and have been doing, he guessed that romance wouldn’t woe Natalia.

“I don’t love you, Tolys,” she reminded him, though that hadn’t been his question.

“I know but…could you?”

“I don’t think so, no.”

Tolys had expected a similar reply, he wasn’t sure why he had bothered asking her anyway. Loving each other or falling in love had never been part of their arrangement.

“I think that we should stop seeing each other, like this. It’s really…wasting our time.”

He couldn’t tell what Natalia was thinking about though by the way her hand visibly shook around the door handle before her fingers tightened around it made him believe that maybe that wasn’t what she had been expecting to hear.

“Do whatever you want,” was all Natalia managed to say, her composure, despite everything, unbreakable, before walking back inside the apartment.

Going back home had never felt more draining. Being home, for some, was just as lonely and difficult.


End file.
